Why the 49ers should sign free agent Xavier Woods
The 49ers have not added to their safety room this offseason. Here's how they can salvage that.
There were many complaints among the fanbase and media regarding the performance coming from the San Francisco 49ers safety position in 2025.
Some of that can be attributed to the lack of pass rush, or you could say the caliber of safeties in the room just are not up to snuff.
Here who took snaps for the 49ers at safety last season:
Jason Pinnock - 494 snaps (now a member of the New York Giants)
Ji'Ayir Brown - 801 snaps
Malik Mustapha - 698 snaps (after returning from an ACL repair)
Marques Sigle - 387 snaps (rookie)
And here is the current state of the 49ers safety room:
Ji'Ayir Brown (2082 career snaps)
Malik Mustapha (1454)
Marques Sigle (387)
Darrick Forrest (1278) - did not play in 2025
Derrick Canteen (0) - 2025 UDFA
Jalen Stroman (0) - 2026 UDFA
Patrick McMorris (8)
Is there any free agent available that the 49ers can bring in to help support this young, inexperienced, and average safety unit?
I have an answer.
Xavier Woods, the 9 year NFL veteran.
He's played a total of 8,147 defensive snaps in his career.
The three players on the 49ers roster that played snaps at safety last year have a combined 3,929 career snaps.
Woods has more than doubled all three of their careers combined. That's invaluable experience that the 49ers do not possess anywhere in their secondary.
In addition to Woods having his own individual experience, the 49ers typically have some type of veteran on the backend.
Last year, it was Jason Pinnock.
In 2024, they had Charvarius Ward in the CB room, George Odum at safety, in addition to having a "star" in Talanoa Hufanga at safety.
In 2022 and 2023, it was Tashaun Gipson.
And prior to that, they had their old reliable safety duo of Jimmie Ward and Jaquiski Tartt.
So it would be logical to assume the 49ers are looking to add a veteran to their defensive backfield. Logic, as well as John Lynch both say this, as Lynch said "the work's not done" in a post-draft press conference.
The reason the 49ers should sign a safety, particularly Woods, for the 2026 season:
Flexibility
In multiple fashions.
Signing Woods gives the 49ers flexibility in terms of which safeties they have to play.
Ji'Ayir Brown can be used where he's best, in the box. Malik Mustapha doesn't have to be the deep safety every snap. Marques Sigle won't be forced into a role if he's not ready.
A guy with a decade of experience can play instead!
There's flexibility in terms of who has to play, and where, because of the flexibility Woods has on the back end.
The Titans seemed to run split safety looks a decent amount, and Woods had a fairly diverse role. While he typically was 10 yards deep, or more, safeties must line up all over the field in 2026. As seen in the cut-up, Woods has the ability to make an impact in all alignments.
Check out the coverage rep at 56 seconds in the cut-up. Woods takes away the middle post in the redzone and is still able to flip his hips to navigate to the wheel route out of the backfield and force a high throw. He does so out of a Cover 2 look.
There's other good coverage reps in there, including a nice INT, but that was my favorite. Much of Woods' deep coverage film was good, but not too much to clip, because he's playing his role overtop and not being targeted.
But also Woods is fairly active in the run game. There were a pair of ugly missed tackles, but Woods' recognition is borderline elite.
Check out the play at 1:50 in the cut-up. Woods comes from a 2 high look and takes a perfect angle to stop the sweep. And there were multiple times where he gets active near the line of scrimmage, not afraid of contact at all.
Xavier Woods is not a perfect player, especially at this point in his career.
He's not fast.
But that's not a requirement in a defense that will mostly feature two high looks.
He had a career high missed tackle rate according to Pro-Football-Reference of 18.8%, a notable outlier. 12 missed tackles according to PFF(Ji'Ayir Brown also had 12, for comparison).
He will be 31 years old by training camp.
He had a hamstring injury that was only described as "severe" that ended his 2025. This would be the main concern.
And Woods has not played special teams in over 5 seasons.
He would likely have to do so if the 49ers sign him and choose to start the younger guys.
But what Woods can bring to the room, even if he doesn't play a snap, should be enough to interest the 49ers.
Now, hopefully he would play, but you get the point. The 49ers could use a veteran on the backend of the defense.
Especially one that can play over top in coverage, support the run from deep, and get his nose dirty at the line of scrimmage.
There was nothing from the 2025 season that supports the 49ers going into the 2026 season with the exact same safety unit. Now, if those guys win the job, they win the job. But there is no reason to not bring in a veteran, whether for off the field or on the field purposes. And I think Xavier Woods fits the bill perfectly.
Let me know what you think of Woods and the 49ers safety room. Who do you think should start, or who else should the 49ers look to sign?
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