The 49ers are adding more profundity to their defensive line through free agency with three weeks left before the NFL draft. NBC Sports Bay Area’s Jennifer Lee Chan on Thursday detailed free agent defensive end Ronald Blair was set to rejoin San Francisco.
Blair missed the entirety of the 2020 season in view of a setback in his recovery from an ACL tear he suffered in Week 10 of the 2019 mission. Head coach Kyle Shanahan said something went wrong during the surgery and constrained Blair to sit out the season.
The 49ers drafted Blair in the fifth round of the 2016 draft, and he carved out a decent role as a rotational defensive end during his residency with the club. He had 13.5 sacks in 47 games his initial two seasons, and now he goes into a defensive line room that desperately needs help on the edges.
Blair played a career-high 50% of the 49ers’ defensive snaps in 2018, yet his other three years he’s been around the 20-to-25 percent mark. On the off chance that he can return to that range and produce, he’ll be a pleasant expansion for San Francisco.