'You don't replace Fred Warner': How will 49ers fill void of the NFL's top linebacker?

SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- Late in the 2024 season, San Francisco 49ers linebacker Fred Warner was engaged in a wide-ranging conversation about his place among the game's best linebackers.

Warner was asked if he could name the three off-ball linebackers who have won the NFL's Defensive Player of the Year Award. Before the question is even fully asked, Warner rattled off the names: Ray Lewis, Brian Urlacher and Luke Kuechly.

At the time, Warner had a small fracture in his ankle but was still playing near his usual, All Pro level. Warner believed he was playing the best football of his career in a season where nothing went right for the 49ers.

Fast forward roughly 10 months and Warner insisted last week that he was playing even better through the first five games of 2025 -- and his name was once again being thrown into DPOY conversations. Warner was also adamant that he could improve.

"It's just the continual progression of my game where I'm not resting on anything I've done," Warner told ESPN. "It would be so easy, four All Pros in, to just say 'I'm good' and keep doing the same things but it's about finding ways to get better."

In a gruesome turn of events Sunday, whatever team and individual goals Warner had for this season came crashing down.

In the first quarter of Sunday's 30-19 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Warner dislocated and broke his right ankle. It was the type of season-ending injury that had players and coaches on both sides recoiling.

It was the latest -- and most devastating -- injury on the 49ers' ever-growing list. That isn't to minimize the absences of the likes of defensive end Nick Bosa (right knee), tight end George Kittle (hamstring), quarterback Brock Purdy (toe) and receivers Ricky Pearsall (knee) and Brandon Aiyuk (knee) or any of the other injured 49ers.

It does, however, speak to how 49ers teammates view Warner, not only for his prodigious on-field production but also his previous durability.

Since entering the league in 2018, Warner missed one of a possible 133 games, including the postseason. In that time, he played 6,993 snaps, the seventh-most among all defenders. He'd only been listed as questionable on the injury report three times in that span.

In the process, Warner had long-since established himself among the NFL's best linebackers, earning four first-team All Pro and Pro Bowl nods, closed within four tackles of surpassing Hall of Famer Patrick Willis as the Niners all-time leading tackler (947), forced 17 fumbles (tied for fifth among all players) and joined retired linebacker Shaquille Leonard as the only two players to reach double digits in sacks, passes defended, interceptions and forced fumbles since 2018.

Had Warner been able to play this season out, he almost certainly would have joined Kuechly and Bobby Wagner as the only players since 2000 to record at least 100 tackles in each of his first eight seasons.

It's the type of resum that left defensive coordinator Robert Saleh to recently opine that Warner is "already a Hall of Famer in my mind" and that Warner is "one of the best, if not the best, linebacker in our current generation."

Suffice to say, the Niners don't have a one-for-one replacement who can replicate what Warner brings to them because there isn't one.

"The thing about Fred is that he sets the standard and I think everybody rises to the standard that he's set," linebacker Luke Gifford said. "You don't replace Fred Warner."

For now, the 49ers' plan to fill the large shoes Warner leaves behind is similar to what they have done without Bosa since he tore his ACL in Week 3. The 49ers will look in-house, giving younger, less experienced players an opportunity to get snaps and try to prove they deserve a longer look at the position.

According to coach Kyle Shanahan, that begins with Tatum Bethune, a 2024 seventh-round pick who carved out a role on special teams, has been Warner's primary backup and who made 10 tackles in Warner's stead on Sunday. Bethune has made one start previously (in Week 18 of last year) but now will likely get plenty of chances he should fill in the rest of the way.

As for how Warner's absence may shake up the rest of the linebacker corps, it could mean that third-round pick Nick Martin is at least active on game days if he can offer special teams value, but it doesn't mean that Martin will step into the starting lineup any time soon.

After Warner departed Sunday, weak side linebacker Dee Winters handled the communication with Saleh and relayed plays in the huddle. That could continue though Winters isn't considered a candidate to move into Warner's middle linebacker spot, which means Bethune with Curtis Robinson as his backup is the more likely short-term setup.

"We have just got to get the job done," Bethune said. "You prepare as a starter for reasons like this. Fred getting hurt was unfortunate but this is why we are all professionals and we've all got a job to do."

Warner's absence creates a significant leadership void for the Niners, particularly on defense where they're in the midst of a major roster renovation. As left tackle Trent Williams put it, Warner is not only the heart and soul of the defense but the team as a whole.

Entering this season with only three returning starters from opening week of 2024, the Niners had plenty of questions about how the defense would fare but they found solace in the fact that the three returnees were Warner, Bosa and cornerback Deommodore Lenoir.

With 11 games to go, Lenoir is the last of that trio still healthy.

"That was kind of my goal this season, just to be a leader," Lenoir said. "Obviously a Pro Bowl, all pro and all that stuff, but one of my goals was to be a leader and I'm in the bigger spotlight now that Fred is down, Bosa is down... I've got to be that guy."

Sunday's loss to Tampa offered a glimpse into what life without Warner could be like for the 49ers defense. Immediately after Warner departed, the Bucs scored touchdowns on three of their next four full drives.

Without Bosa to generate pressure or Warner dropping in coverage, Tampa Bay shredded the Niners over the middle of the field. On throws between the numbers, Bucs quarterback Baker Mayfield went 11-of-13 for 154 yards and a touchdown.

"When we're all out there together, you can feel it and when one person's not out there, you can feel it," safety Ji'Ayir Brown said. "Now with both of 'em not out there, it's even more daunting."

While there have been plenty of positive signs of progress from the 49ers young defense in the opening six games, the task for Saleh & Co. undoubtedly just got more difficult. Which means it's reasonable for more of the onus to fall on the offense.

San Francisco has been hit hard with injury on that side of the ball, too, but there's hope that Kittle, Purdy and Pearsall will be back soon with Aiyuk potentially following soon after. If those players all return, the Niners will have all but two starters back from the first week of 2024 on that side of the ball.

Although the defense has carried a lot of the freight early in the season, much of the hope the 4-2 Niners have of making a postseason push falls on Purdy, McCaffrey and Co.

"I think that's huge," McCaffrey said. "Just having more depth and having some guys come back with fresh energy, that's a big deal."

There is, of course, one more avenue for the 49ers to explore to improve the roster sans Warner: the trade market.

After losing Bosa, all signs pointed toward the Niners seeing how their pass rush looked without him before making any sort of big trade push. The thought process at the time was that most teams still believed they had a chance to compete and any potential deal would come closer to the Nov. 4 trade deadline.