The San Francisco 49ers Just Found Their Next CENTER And He’s ELITE!

The San Francisco 49ers Just Found Their Next CENTER And He’s ELITE!

With San Francisco wrapping up another victory and moving to five and two on the year, probably the biggest storyline on the offensive side of the ball was the play of their backup center and Matt Hennessy. The 27-year-old filled in for Jake Brindle as he dealt with a hamstring injury. And throughout the game, he proved to be an effective option, not only in the running game, but also the passing game. So, in this video, we’re going to go over why I believe he could end up being San Francisco’s center of the future. Initially to start out, the first thing that really stood out about this game in general to me on San Francisco’s offensive side of the ball was how they finally were able to get the running game going. Prior to this game, for example, Christian McCaffrey was only averaging 3.1 yards a carry. And in this game, he exploded averaging 5.4 yards a carry. And while in part that was due to KD’s return, several of Christian McCaffry’s longer runs of the day came directly as a result of a Matt Hennessy block. Here on this play, for instance, San Francisco is running a trap play, pulling Punia across this offensive line and trapping this defensive end, allowing him a free release up the field. Meanwhile, the rest of their offensive linemen are stepping playside with the hoping they can create clear cutback lanes for Christian McCaffrey to exploit. And right here, focusing on Matt Hennessy. He has a pretty challenging hook block he has to execute. He has to down block on this defensive tackle lined up on his outside shoulder. Then as soon as he engages, he has to flip his hips to cut him off from this play. Nevertheless, he’s able to get there. And once engaged, he does a great job of staying engaged in part due to his grip strength that flips his hips and creates the clear cut back lane for Christian McCaffrey to work with and ultimately helps spring this run. In a similar way on this tight end counter, Hennessy is responsible for this linebacker being sent on the blitz. And initially, he does a nice job of engaging with him. And once again, he creates a clear wall for Christian McAffrey to press, which gets the entire defense flowing that direction. And as soon as he sees KD engage with his backer, he then can bounce it back to the outside on this play, ultimately taking advantage of Hennessy’s block. So once again, right here, Hennessy is directly responsible for a massive play for Christian McCaffrey. The final aspect of Hennessy’s hook blocks I really want to focus on is just how athletic he is and how great his feet are when executing these hook blocks. Here, for instance, he’s responsible for down blocking this defensive tackle lined up outside of Connor Kobe’s shoulder. Nevertheless, because of his insane athleticism, he’s able to almost instantly get there. And then pay attention to his feet. He’s almost kick sliding up the field with this defensive tackle. And regardless of what he’s trying to do to disengage from him on this play right here, Hennessy is staying engaged with a double under hooks. Really, once again, creating a clear cut back lane. Another underappreciated aspect of his game, in my opinion, is just how strong his grip strength is. Here, this nose tackle is actually slanting away from his block. But because he has strong grip strength, he’s actually able to throw him almost across his field, not draw the holding call most importantly. And once again, this run is coming right off his block. Another thing you’ll notice about Hennessy is how he remains active throughout the play. Here on this play, for instance, he quickly engages with Pun’s man, drives him outside of the play, and seeing Connor Kobe need help, he actually hits his man as well. The final aspect of Hennessy’s run blocking I wanted to touch on is just how great he is at double teaming his way up to the second level. Here, for instance, despite this defensive lineman being lined way outside his shoulder, he’s able to get there in a flash and then starts driving him up the field. And almost instantly, he’s able to identify Floyd looping over the top. So, he disengages and then re-engages with a much more athletic player here and starts to drive him down the field. To further highlight his ability to double team his way up to the second level on this play, he’s responsible for double teaming this defensive tackle and then cutting off any linebacker, defensive end, basically anyone who tries to flow across the field. And initially he does a great job getting that drive on this defensive tackle outside the play and then making his way up the field he’s able to once again flip his hips and cut off this defensive player from Christian McCaffry’s run. I really don’t think they would have been as effective without Hennessy in this game. And while mainly so far I’ve been focusing on Hennessy’s ability as a run blocker throughout this game you could argue his pass blocking was actually better. And one thing he did a really nice job of in this aspect of his game was identifying stunts and blitzes. Here on this play, for example, he’s able to identify pre- snap this backer coming on the blitz, which also gives him an indicator a potential stunt is coming. On top of that, post snap, this defensive tackle is landing hard in front of his face and then using a bull rush to try to create separation for this defensive end. But because Hennessy is able to identify it, he picks him up with his left side and also stays engaged with Pun’s man to help him out as well on this play. And then look at his anchoring. Even though he’s facing two men essentially right here, he gives M. Jones enough time to let this thing fly deep down the field to Demarcus Robinson. And on this play, I really don’t know how Robinson didn’t catch this. In a similar way, once again on this play, the Falcons are sending the blitz and Hennessy is quick to identify it. So, first he helps pick up 98 and then seeing 51 being sent, he also picks him up. So, once again helps block two players on this play, which allows M. Jones to get this completion right here. Another thing Hennessy did a really nice job of throughout this game in his pass protection was his ability to pick up these bull rushes here with this nose tackle. Just trying to straight up bully him on this play, driving him into the back field. Hennessy is able to anchor and while driven into the backfield a bit, he’s really not giving up this block. And even with the lateral movement here, because of his athleticism, Hennessy is able to stay engaged. And M. Jones once again gets the completion. This lateral ability by Hennessy is vital in his pass protection. And routinely throughout this Falcons game, it came up. You’re going against this nose tackle. For instance, he’ll be shooting hard across Hennessy’s face. So quickly, Hennessy is able to respond in part due to his footwork and athleticism. But he doesn’t stop there as this defensive tackle once he gets Hennessy’s momentum going that direction, then tries to shoot hard across his face to get into the backfield. Because Hennessy is such an athletic player, he doesn’t freak out at all and starts to slide with him, re-engages, and gives M. Jones plenty of time on this play. Another thing about Hennessy, because he is such an athletic center, he can do everything Kyle Shanahan wants to with an offensive lineman. Here, for instance, he can go ahead and set up a screen for Christian McCaffrey, then breaks out and even makes another block on this play. This is what you want out of a center for a movement oriented system like Kyle Shanahance. With that being said, sometimes he will dip his head and he doesn’t have the longest arms, so he needs to continue to improve as a player. But overall, when I’m looking at him as a player, I think he could be San Francisco’s long-term center. He’s only 27, so right now he’s really entering the prime of his career compared to Jake Brindle, who is 33, so most likely on the back half of his career. So, for the remainder of the season, I think San Francisco should start Matt Hennessy. See what they have in the young guy like they have basically been doing with every single position throughout this entire year. And maybe they have found their next future center in Matt Hennessy. But ultimately, these are just some of my thoughts on his outing against the Falcons. And now, I want to hear your thoughts. Do you think he should take over for Jake Brindle just to see if he can continue to improve and potentially be a better player than him overall, or would you like San Francisco just continuing to roll with Brindle if available? It would also mean a ton to me if you did enjoy this video if you could go ahead and like and subscribe. It truly helps out the channel a ton. And as always, I hope you guys have a great rest of your

With Jake Brendel leaving the Falcons game with a hamstring injury. The San Francisco’s new starting center was Matt Hennessy. In this video we go over his most recent outing against the Falcons, strengths, weaknesses. This is to understand why he could end up being the 49er next ELITE Center for the San Francisco 49ers.
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