Is Demtrius Flannigan Fowles the 49ers Best Special Teamer

time for the 49ers Rush podcast coming in at number 59 on the 49ers roster countdown of 2023 is none other it's just initials baby dff Demetrius Flanagan fowles out of Arizona the Special Teams Ace now last year he came in at number 43 this year 59 quite a drop now I think he's making the 53-man roster I really really do and once we get into the contract I think you'll see why I believe that but the reason why I had them fall from 43 to 59 is because I don't even consider him a linebacker anymore I know that's the position he plays but he had a couple opportunities to come into games last year um as that number three linebacker as that will linebacker and just did not perform well now led the team in special teams tackles awesome you know got Pro Bowl votes as a special team specialist he belongs in the NFL I just don't think that he really has a position on the defensive side of the ball so it's you know he's the Special Teams Ace and that's not an insult it's just it's kind of hard to push up you know him in the roster rankings whenever I don't think that he's going to get any defensive snaps at all now shout out to Josh the 49ers Guru for putting all this research together so dff comes in he wears jersey number 45 for the 49ers 6-2-25 he was a safety um and you kind of look at his height and weight and all those things like pretty identical to Miles Hartsfield who we just did an episode on but a little bit slower a little bit thicker um you know six two two twenty five that is so small for a linebacker I understand the true transition that's taking place at the linebacker position in the NFL but it's just it's just a little too much uh for dff he's 26 years old he ran a 4.58 40 yard dash not bad um 34.5 inch vertical all right 10-3 broad jump that's great 15 bench press reps and he's going into this is where the NFL gets a little tricky it's his Fifth Season out of college he's been with the 40 hours for five years but technically it's only his fourth year um a crude season because he didn't play in 2019 so that didn't count for him um so this is yeah it's it's kind of a whole weird thing because if you don't play your contract tolls to the following year now he went to Mountain View High School in Arizona eventually chose to go to the Wildcats in Arizona um three-star recruit coming out of high school graduated with the general studies degree and man he's just a positive person on and off the field it was labeled self-proclaimed labeled a mama's boy growing up and would regularly have dates with Mom you'd love to see that began playing football at the age of six his uncle signed him up for flag football and all throughout his journey safety was The prominent position that everybody just assumed that's what he was going to be safety and wide receiver whenever he was in high school as a junior he played some defensive end and was all Southern Arizona first team selection which is awesome athleticism's always been there you know he goes to Arizona played 13 games as a true freshman in 2015. um he was in their SWAT defensive packages you know this is where they bring in the extra safety in the Box type of thing so you know this kind of Bandit there's lots of star there's lots of different terms that people use for that safety that moves around it's very similar to what the 49ers do with Tylenol hufunga but whenever he got to the NFL that just wasn't it um just not what it was they moved him from safety to linebacker as soon as the 49ers brought him in as an undrafted free agent and he does a lot for Santa Clara Community off the field he's very very active does so many different things to help people um in our community he just fits he is he is a complete fit culturally personality wise exactly what the niners want and the player but again the linebacking issues it's just rough you know if you look at his combined stats in the NFL dff has 60 career tackles one tackle for loss one quarterback hit one set now last year 2022 he had 325 special team snaps 99 defensive snaps which were one of the lowest you know since he came in in 2020 he had 194 snaps on special team 61 on defense 2021 545 special team snaps 164 defensive snaps now and not that this is a how do I say this the Chiefs game kind of showed his inefficiencies at the linebacker position if you remember Drake Greenlaw played the first half then left the first half with an injury the score was 14 to 13. like did she it was a close game whatever else second half good Lord the the 49ers got blown out by the Chiefs this year and Patrick Mahomes going to kill a lot of people but as soon as that switch was made from Dre Greenlaw to dff good Lord the game finished 44-23 they just went off dff had 29 snaps or sorry 36 snaps in that game in the second half he had a 29 PFF score they were going at him in the Run game passing game and they just torched them after that didn't really get opportunity to come back and play any defensive snaps really at all and I think that's kind of what they are if you look at the 49ers draft they drafted not one but two linebackers and so I I think that that kind of plays a very important role and they even brought in an undrafted free agent at linebacker who got injured and they've moved on but you could see the 49ers are bolstering the back end of that linebacking group which I think the 49ers had the best linebacking group in the NFL I think that the 49ers judge the linebacking position or Scout or develop it better than any other position that the 49ers like have he's and so to say all those things and then say I don't consider dff a linebacker anymore he's a kind of a break glass in case of emergency type guy that's one thing but then you get to his contract he signed a one-year 1.8 million dollar deal all right that's a lot more than you know you've got your carry hiders and Miles Hartsfield these kind of you know Journeymen in the NFL that you know you're not quite sure where they fit so that's a lot more in and of itself but then you look at the guaranteed money 1.2 million guaranteed that's substantial and on top of that he's got a 14 000 roster bonus for every game he's active so I'm the money says he should be higher than 59. I'm just going to be honest like very likely he's going to be on this 53-man roster and just be a special teams Ace that's not a bad thing now the question becomes how many special teams Aces can you carry on the 53 when you have such a competitive roster you got Odom George Odom the safety he's very similar to dff he's a safety but not really they would prefer a drafted free agents to play safety ahead of him he's just so damn good at special teams that's what dff is as well now the one thing that I can say is you know my initial thought was man we've got like four or five special team Aces how can the Niners carry all that but I don't think that's the way that it is I think you have two because you've got Odom who's a special teams Ace you don't want to play safety you've got dff special teams Ace you don't want to play linebacker last year we had Oren Burks but he's not that anymore with Aziz departing I fully expect Oren Burks to be the starting number three linebacker the same linebacker so he's no longer just a special teams Ace Samuel Womack right special I think he's the best special teamer on the 49ers he was last year for sure but he is the first corner off the board at all three cornerback positions both outside and the nickel guy so Womack even though most of his Snaps are special teams he's not just a special teams guy you have no problem with Samuel Womack playing Corner then you got Ray Ray McLeod returner specialist whatever else not necessarily he backs up Debo so when I initially started going through the depth chart and trying to find a way for dff to make this 53-man roster I was doing mental gymnastics because I was like there's no way you can carry five special teams Aces I don't think they're doing that I think they just got to carry two and Odom and dff I think they have a role and I think they have a pathway especially with that contract 1.2 million guaranteed that was a shock to me maybe it was just a favor hey man you had such a great year last year we want to take care of you financially but we'll have to see what this looks like because I don't think DFS going anywhere and I don't want him to you know again led the team in special teams tackles that's something that you got to take especially with the Niners who have had very poor special teams play since Kyle Shanahan showed up last year was an improvement but still not good so DFS gonna be around fun Journey fun player fits the community fits the culture and I think he's starting to and you know his fifth year figuring out what his role is going to be in the NFL and so excited to see dff around lurking on special teams and for us we're just going to keep counting down foreign