When the San Francisco 49ers hired Raheem Morris to be their new defensive coordinator, 49ers fans were expecting them to be linked to basically every defensive free agent the Atlanta Falcons had. Yet Morris has surprisingly failed to bring any of his ex-Falcons with him to San Francisco.
Dee Alford, Kaden Elliss, David Onyemata and Arnold Ebiketie all signed elsewhere. So the only way the 49-year-old can bring a piece of Atlanta with him to the Bay Area is if the 49ers bring back Leonard Floyd — and that quiet possibility is starting to make more sense than the fanbase would care to admit.
As the site expert at Blogging Dirty, let me put on my Falcons hat for a second. Floyd didn’t just spend 2025 playing for Morris in Atlanta; he spent two seasons playing for him with the Los Angeles Rams in 2021 and 2022. Whose to say this pair won’t reunite a third time with a third different team in 2026?
A reunion between Leonard Floyd and the San Francisco 49ers could still be on the table.
The 33-year-old enjoyed a major statistical drop-off for the Dirty Birds last season, but that was mainly because he was relegated to a rotational role behind rookie standouts Jalon Walker and James Pearce Jr. Even in a smaller role, Floyd is still plenty capable of being an impactful pass-rusher.
The Georgia product may not be the perennial 10-sack player he was a couple of seasons ago, but for a 49ers team that badly needs depth in the pass-rushing department, fans should welcome him back with open arms — especially if they’re unable to address edge rusher early in the 2026 NFL Draft.
With the 27th pick, odds are that John Lynch and the Niners are going to do some serious homework on the 2026 pass-rushing class, even with Mykel Williams and Nick Bosa set to return. And signing Floyd is the type of signing that wouldn’t deter them from drafting another edge rusher early on.
Players like Auburn’s Keldric Faulk, Missouri’s Zion Young, and Texas A&M’s Cashius Howell are expected to be near the top of their list, although it seems like a stretch that Faulk will be available at 27. But all three of these players are strong run defenders, so it wouldn’t take away from adding Floyd.
Odds are that any Floyd potential signing would come after the 2026 NFL Draft. And given we know that Morris loves his guys and wants to make the pass-rush a priority, I wouldn’t put it past San Francisco’s front office to pursue a reunion with Floyd.
In the end, the 49ers’ defensive makeover under Morris has hit an early roadblock on the free-agent front. With no Falcons transplants materializing, the most logical — and perhaps only — bridge back to Morris’s proven system may be the 33-year-old veteran who already knows exactly what the new coordinator wants. Leonard Floyd isn’t the flashiest name on the market, but in a league where continuity and trust matter as much as raw production, he might just be the quiet veteran ambush the 49ers need to stabilize their edge.
