SANTA CLARA — Safeties are the most crucial defensive chess pieces on the board that is an NFL field.
So it’s good that 49ers rookie safety Ji’Ayir Brown likes playing chess.
“I’ve messed around with video games a bit, but I’ll play chess all day,” he told me Wednesday.
The 49ers are going to need Brown’s strategic mind to be working overtime in the final four weeks of the regular season and all the weeks that are to follow.
Because after 49ers’ All-Pro strong safety Talanoa Hufanga blew out his knee in Week 11, Brown was tossed into the fire. Now he’s the marked man in the Niners’ defense.
But much like Brock Purdy last season, he’s been able to take it in stride, because of preternatural maturity and serious extra-curricular preparation.
And also like Purdy during his rookie season, Brown’s success or failure will prove critical to the 49ers’ chances of achieving their Super Bowl dreams.
“Every week is going to be a challenge,” 49ers general manager and Hall of Fame safety John Lynch told me. “He’s gotta be up to it.”
I have many opinions others have deemed controversial, but one that seems to rile people up the most is when I believe, truly, that “safeties are destiny” in important games.
I’m not suggesting they’re as important as the quarterback, but it should be noted that when a quarterback heads to the line of scrimmage, he’s looking for the safeties.
Not only do safeties define a defense (the reason quarterbacks are so interested in them pre-snap), but they’re vital in both the run and pass game, and are, most importantly, the last line of the defense.
A great safety can flummox the quarterback and make everyone in front of him on defense look good.
A bad one can undercut the efforts of even the most talented unit.
You can scheme pressure. You can’t cover up for a safety in over his head.
And in big late-season or postseason games, where margins are razor-thin, safeties — the guys who aren’t even on the TV screen when the ball is snapped — are often the difference between winning and losing.
The 49ers know about this all too well. In the 2021 NFC Championship Game, the Rams’ Eric Weddle — signed off the couch weeks before — was everywhere, breaking up pass plays and stuffing the Niners’ vaunted run game.
“Without Weddle those guys don’t beat us,” Lynch told me (through some gritted teeth). “He was phenomenal.”
Meanwhile, the Niners’ strong safety, Jaquiski Tartt, dropped a game-winning interception in that contest.
Now, the 49ers will play some massive games in the coming weeks, and there’s nowhere for Brown to hide.
That’s a lot of pressure on the rookie’s shoulders.
That’s why plenty of smart people around the league shuddered when Hufanga was ruled out for the remainder of the season.
But those who knew his Brown weren’t worried.
“I always put that pressure on myself,” Brown, 23, told me Wednesday. “I don’t feel like I made it. I never get settled. I don’t go out — I don’t find interest in that stuff. I’m just wired that way.”
His teammates have noticed.
“As soon as he came into the team, I felt like he was very mature for his age, even being a rookie. Everybody called him the ‘young vet,’” Fred Warner said. “He’s had that presence about him since the day he got there… He’s kept his head in that playbook, that iPad, constantly watching film, constantly watching tape. He’s out there making checks, making calls.”
“[It’s] Just being a student of the game,” Brown said. “When other guys were out there, I was putting myself in the same position they were in, letting my mind and instincts take over through the film — wondering how I would do in the same situations… You know in the NFL, you don’t get many reps at it. You have to take the mental reps.”
And as those mental reps have turned into real reps — in the middle of a Super Bowl hunt — Brown has made his voice heard.
“He’s very confident. I love how he’s communicating and talking. He has really taken the initiative to be that vocal guy back there,” defensive coordinator Steve Wilks said.
Brown was a third-round pick — a far cry from Purdy’s last-pick-in-the-draft quirk — but talking to coaches and teammates about him, it’s impossible not to pick up hints of the Niners quarterback’s rookie campaign. Purdy, like Brown, prepared as if he was going to start every game and was anything but timid (even telling veterans to “shut up” in the huddle) once he did enter the fray.
“He’s already a leader amongst veterans,” cornerback Charvarius Ward said of Brown in Seattle. “He’s always picking up something and speaking up. That kind of surprised me.”
“And even if he’s wrong, I’d rather have a young guy out there barking calls than having to tell him to speak up,” Warner said. “He’s doing those little things right. I’m really proud of him, man.”
Brown’s first serious NFL action as a top safety saw him break up two passes and catch the game-winning interception against Tampa Bay. Since that game, he’s been the NFL’s No. 14 safety, per Pro Football Focus (No. 6 in run defense, No. 18 against the pass).
“He’s a really good football player. Much like Huf[anga], he’s got an ability to make plays. And that was tested right away,” Lynch — who knows a little something about safety play — said. “Man, they play fast. They see the field very well. And then Ji’Ayir has tremendous ball skills.”
The tests are going to keep coming for Brown. Opposing offenses aren’t going to stop challenging a rookie safety now that we’re in December and every snap is critical.
But so far, Brown has aced the test. He looks like a staple of this defense for years to come.
And if that holds in the coming weeks, the 49ers might just ace their test, too.
