SANTA CLARA — Fred Warner has taken over a new type of leadership role at the 49ers facility since suffering a season-ending ankle injury.
Tatum Bethune, who is holding down the middle linebacker role for the All-Pro, shared that Warner still is available as a resource for the linebackers room but is pushing for the young group to experience games — and their aftermath — on their own.
“Fred is kind of letting us learn,” Bethune said Wednesday. “He’s teaching us too, but moments like this, he’s letting us learn and figure it out and just get better from it. Because if someone is babysitting you and telling you what you need to do all the time, you’re not really going to understand what’s going on.
“He’s there for us, but he’s letting us learn, too.”
Warner has been a captain since his second season in the league, going on six years running. During games, the All-Pro can be seen directing traffic and making sure everyone on the defense is in the right place and at times, doing their job on each play.
In Warner’s absence, the 49ers’ defense has had their struggles. At times, Bethune and his group have played soundly, but they have also appeared disjointed and ultimately inconsistent. The Florida State product knows the key is playing with discipline and high effort.
“I just feel like they played like they wanted it more,” Bethune said of the Los Angeles Rams. “They executed more and we didn’t. When it comes down to it, we have to get the job done. We all have a specific job and I feel like none of us got it down that weekend.”
The 49ers have not won consecutive games since they started the season with three wins in a row. Bethune hopes to change that trend in Week 11 when they head to the desert to face the Arizona Cardinals and start a three-game stretch against teams with losing records.
“We are trying to get to a point where we get on a run, and we just get win after win after win, whether it’s ugly or not,” Bethune said. We don’t want it to be a roller coaster. I don’t think [any] team wants it to be a roller coaster. We just want to get on a track where we get on a run.”
“We got another opportunity this week to fix the things that went wrong in the game and now we just have to move on.”
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