SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- Since his arrival via trade in 2020, San Francisco 49ers left tackle Trent Williams has grown accustomed to stepping on the practice field and looking across the line of scrimmage at a defense that, despite cycling through six coordinators in 10 years, has looked largely the same.
Coordinators Robert Saleh, DeMeco Ryans, Steve Wilks, Nick Sorensen and Saleh again introduced wrinkles throughout their tenures. But for the most part, the team has run a base 4-3 defense paired with ever-changing zone coverage principles. Until this year.
Roughly halfway through their first training camp with Raheem Morris in charge of the defense, Williams still isn't sure what to expect from down to down.
"Everything's different," Williams said. "... Obviously, we're not brand new to it. We played it a lot when [Raheem] was in L.A., played last year in Atlanta. It's actually one of the defenses that a lot of people tend to throw in their repertoire."
In the locker room, Morris has been a breath of fresh air. That's not because the players lack love and respect for Saleh, who now coaches the Titans and is back in the Bay Area for joint practices and the preseason opener, but because Morris empowers them to play free and challenges them to expand their games.
To the surprise of no one who watched a Morris defense when he was the defensive coordinator for the Rams (2021-23) or served as the head coach in Atlanta (2024-25), most of the defensive changes aim to create a confusing pre-snap picture for the opposition. And he does so through the use of five-man fronts, which Williams, linebacker Fred Warner, and quarterback Brock Purdy have all pointed out.
Morris' Atlanta teams played the third-most five-man fronts in the NFL over the past two seasons, while the Niners have only "dibbled and dabbled a little bit" with it, according to Morris.
Raheem Morris was hired as the 49ers' defensive coordinator after Robert Saleh left to coach the Tennessee Titans in the offseason. Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images But the real curveball in the scheme isn't so much the use of five-man front as to what he asks that fifth man to do. At a recent news conference, veteran linebacker Dre Greenlaw made passing mention of a position Morris calls the "fever backer."
Asked to describe the responsibilities of the "fever backer," Morris joked he has been "making up a lot of terms" before explaining the position can do just about anything. That includes playing off the edge as a pass rusher, dropping into more of a coverage role or being a traditional stack linebacker.