We heard earlier this morning that Ziggy Ansah was flying to meet with the 49ers with a signing likely in the cards, and now it appears official. San Francisco is finalizing a one-year deal with the veteran pass-rusher, Jeremy Fowler of ESPN.com tweets. Kyle Shanahan later confirmed the agreement at his Monday press conference. The pact will be worth $3MM, according to Ian Rapoport of NFL Network (Twitter link).
This is the culmination of a couple rounds of flirting between the two sides, as Ansah has already met with the team multiple times recently. Fowler notes that the signing will take place as soon as Ansah clears the COVID-19 protocols. It’s a nice low-risk upside flyer for a team suddenly in need of edge help in the wake of Nick Bosa‘s injury.
Bosa, of course, went down with an ACL tear on Sunday, leaving a gaping hole along the 49ers’ defensive line. The defensive front was the engine behind last year’s Super Bowl run, and after Bosa’s injury and the trade of DeForest Buckner, the unit has now been severely depleted.
The fifth overall pick of the 2013 draft by the Lions, Ansah initially had a lot of success in Detroit. In 2015 he had 14.5 sacks, earning a second-team All-Pro selection. He had 12 more sacks in 2017 which caused the Lions to franchise-tag him, but injuries derailed his last couple of seasons.
He had a shoulder issue he could seemingly never quite get over, and had only 2.5 sacks in 11 games with Seattle last year. 31 now, Ansah is reportedly fully healthy and should have something left in the tank physically. It’ll be interesting to see how defensive coordinator Robert Saleh uses him moving forward.
Nice pick up. Nobody can replace Bosa but he adds depth which took a big hit yesterday. Don’t expect a lot from him but even if he’s used to help give guys rest that’ll be good for them so guys don’t have to play so much and get worn out or risk more injuries. God knows this team can’t afford more injuries.
“Fully healthy” – how many times did we hear that as a Lions fan?
Now that the 49ers have signed ZIGGY,
they have set out in search of ZAGGY !!