NaVorro Bowman: The New Anchor Of The 49ers?
This past off-season for the San Francisco 49ers has been tumultuous to say the least. For starters, the team mutually parted ways with former head coach, Jim Harbaugh, after a disappointing 8-8 season amidst rumors of locker room tensions. To make matters worse, three critical defensive players announced their retirement. The 49ers nation said farewell to Chris Borland along with the great Patrick Willis and Justin Smith.
Perhaps the continual nightmare of the 49ers started when NaVorro Bowman suffered a dreadful ACL and MCL tear against the Seattle Seahawks in that bleak NFC Championship game back in 2013. Bowman sat out the entire 2014 season to recover, but he is gearing up to make a full return in the upcoming season.
Last season, the 49ers clearly struggled to make things happen on both offense and defense. Hopefully, the 49ers faithful won’t experience all of the sloppy penalties that plagued the 2014 season all over again.
When Bowman last played, he contributed 145 combined tackles in 2013. With his potential return to full strength, the Niners should be greeted with arguably, one of the most hard nosed linebackers the Bay Area has ever seen.
Unfortunately, Bowman will not have Willis on his side this season, but linebacker Michael Wilhoite is primed to step up as a team leader. According to 49ers News, Wilhoite played all 16 games last season, and he’s developing nicely alongside Bowman.
The defense of the 49ers is at its best when key players can rely on each other. That is a key ingredient that seemed to be missing last season with Willis’s toe injury sidelining him much of the year. Think back to their playoff push two seasons ago. The defense made big plays when it mattered the most. If Willis wasn’t making high impact plays, Bowman was sure to step up for the big time moments.
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Candlestick Park’s final regular season home game was the stage for one of Bowman’s most exciting plays of the season. Dubbed “The Pick at the ‘Stick”, Bowman intercepted Matt Ryan for a pick six that helped close the book on one of the most iconic stadiums in professional sports.
However, the inaugural season of Levi’s Stadium failed to live up to the high hopes of San Francisco’s fan base. According to SF Gate, Jed York, when speaking about the new stadium that it’s, “not quite a home.”
On the bright side, it seems that the stars are aligning for a return to form from the 49ers. There is certainly an array of opinions on the head coaching situation, but Jim Tomsula just might be the right guy for the job.
Bowman said for 49ers News that Tomsula “is a player’s coach.” He further explained that Tomsula is:
"“…willing to see what the players like and try to work around it. He’s not giving us everything we want, but he’s trying to meet us in the middle, and I think that’s the best thing for it.”"
This give and take system of Tomsula seems to contrast the almost authoritarian style of Jim Harbaugh. Perhaps his style and familiarity with the defense is exactly what the Niners need to become stable, if not solid, defensively once more.
Bowman also said of Wilhoite:
"“He understands that he had to crawl before he could walk. … He’s doing a great job. The crazy thing is some of the things that I don’t know or don’t say, Mike says it. So it’s really working out.”"
Along with coach Tomsula, cohesion is certainly forming around Bowman’s leadership. Bowman will be the anchor of 49ers because of that, and he is stepping into the role of the physical and mental leader that Willis left behind.
Yes, there are still questions about the running attack without Frank Gore and Colin Kaepernick‘s ability to be an elite quarterback, but a healthy Bowman will certainly rise to the occasion and lead this team to a better season.
If Tomsula and Bowman can turn this Niners team into a family, then there might be hope that Levi’s Stadium can start to feel like home.