49ers linebacker Fred Warner put on reserve/COVID-19 list
The 49ers before Monday morning’s practice announced linebacker Fred Warner was added to the reserve/COVID-19 list.
The team did not specify whether Warner tested positive for the virus or if he were exposed through contact tracing. The earliest he can return to the team is Thursday, if he passes three straight coronavirus tests.
Warner is the first 49ers player to be added to the list since receiver Richie James Jr. and running back Jeff Wilson Jr. went on the list in July.
Warner, entering his fourth season, was recently voted the NFL’s 70th-best player by his peers in a poll. He practiced sparingly Friday before missing Sunday’s session. He was not seen at the facility, nor was fellow linebacker Dre Greenlaw or rookie defensive tackle Javon Kinlaw. Kinlaw returned to practice Monday; Greenlaw did not.
Third-round picks aren’t often given the keys to the defense as rookies. Warner is an exception. He’s been relaying calls in the huddle from coordinator Robert Saleh during his two seasons as the 49ers’ middle linebacker. And he’s on a trajectory to become one of the better linebackers in the league.
November’s NFC defensive player of the month was Pro Football Focus’ seventh-best linebacker in coverage last season. His interception of Patrick Mahomes in the Super Bowl would have been far more memorable if the defense didn’t help give up the 10-point lead in the fourth quarter.
‘He’s so smart’ 49ers coaches say
Taking things off Warner’s plate, like being responsible for a slew of presnap adjustments from his teammates has led to Warner playing faster and making more splashy plays, like his tone-setting forced fumble against Aaron Rodgers on the first series, or a pair of sacks against Russell Wilson in the hard-fought Monday night loss Nov. 11.
“He’s so smart you want to give him more (responsibilities),” coordinator Robert Saleh said last season of Warner. “But like any player, the more you give, the slower they go.
“We always try to balance off to try to eliminate as much as we can from him so he can just go line up and play because one of his greatest strengths is he can identify formations, tendencies and down-distance situations. He can pick up indicators quicker than most people can, so to take away some of that stuff from him is really more the challenge of giving him more.”
Warner said Saleh has taken things off his plate at roughly the midpoint of the season, which is about when his play started to take off. The 2018 third-round draft pick had a strip-sack fumble against the Packers on Nov. 24 that Nick Bosa recovered at the 2-yard line.
“I think being in my second year, things are going a lot smoother, I’m seeing things a lot quicker, which I think probably helps with that too,” Warner said last season.
The checklist of Warner’s responsibilities before the snap can be up to six items, cornerback Richard Sherman said last season, while providing an example from the Nov. 17 game against the Arizona Cardinals.
“If this guy moves here, he has to re-adjust the line, and he has to tell DBs this, he has to tell this guy, and sometimes that just doesn’t allow him to play fast,” Sherman said. “He’s getting everybody else lined up, allowing everyone else to play really fast, but he can’t play fast because he has to make all these calls, these adjustments. And once you take that off him, maybe you put a little more strain on the rest of the guys, you spread out the strain, it allows him to play faster, and it allows us to be a better defense.”
Saleh has said Warner was the smartest college prospect he ever interviewed before the draft. Warner has become well known throughout team headquarters for his study habits and being locked into his iPad studying film as much as any player on the team. He realized the importance of it during his college career at BYU where Kyle Van Noy, now a highly respected veteran for the New England Patriots, served as a mentor.
“I think when I got to college I started to learn more about preparing, off the field, some of the older guys kind of taught me the ways,” Warner said. “It just gets more and more important as you get to the higher level you get to. I think that’s what separates the players from the goods from the greats.”
This story was originally published August 31, 2020 at 10:50 AM.