Will star 49ers linebacker Fred Warner reach the Pro Football Hall of Fame once he hangs up his jersey for good? 

San Francisco defensive coordinator Robert Saleh believes the eight-year NFL veteran already is bound for enshrinement with just 115 career regular-season games under his belt.

“I mean, he’s still young. What is he, 28? He’s already a Hall of Famer in my mind,” Saleh told reporters Thursday at 49ers training camp. “He’s one of the best, if not the best, linebacker in our current generation. So, every day he brings it, it feels like he’s still a kid, doesn’t get old. 

“He’s still the one out there chirping and yelling and screaming and getting everybody pumped up. So, he hasn’t changed in that regard. The game hasn’t jaded him, if that makes sense. But he’s still flying around, and his expectation of his teammates is — the bar he sets for those guys is high. So, he’s always, always a coach’s dream.”

Saleh would know.

The defensive coordinator was part of the staff that drafted and molded Warner during his first three seasons (2018-20) and returned to the Bay, greeted by what now is a well-oiled machine at middle linebacker.

The stats and history support Saleh’s case for Warner, too. A four-time All-Pro and four-time Pro Bowl selection, Warner has collected 897 tackles — 36 of which for loss — with 15 forced fumbles and 10 interceptions throughout his career. That quality of play doesn’t grow on trees, and to Saleh’s point about Warner’s youth, who knows if a ceiling even exists for Warner?

Warner has elicited Hall of Fame praise before, from his head coach. Similar to Saleh, Kyle Shanahan told NBC Sports Bay Area’s Greg Papa in September that Warner already is one of the NFL’s all-time great linebackers, specifically when discussing his ability to strip the ball.

“What he does with stripping that ball, it drives our offense crazy throughout the whole offseason,” Shanahan told Papa. “Everyone’s got bruises all over him because he’s always trying to hit people, everyone tries to emulate him.

“The callouses on his knuckles from just punching so much. He is elite at it, and he does it better than anyone and we’re all seeing a big-time Hall of Fame player have a Hall of Fame year right now.”

Warner finished 2024 with 131 tackles, four forced fumbles and two interceptions. It would be more surprising than not if he didn’t have a Hall-of-Fame-caliber 2025 NFL season.

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