Mykel Williams came back for the San Francisco 49ers in Week 5 and left with the lowest PFF grade on the defense, a 50.4 in a win over the Seattle Seahawks. He played 23 snaps, recorded zero sacks, zero QB hits and one pressure, and his return did not deliver the pass-rushing lift the team wanted.
That matters because the 49ers are 5-0, and the game should have been a clean stage for Williams to ease back into a larger role. San Francisco forced four takeaways and five sacks, which meant the defense did enough to control the game even without a major night from the player drafted 11th overall out of Georgia.
Williams, 22, was making his season debut after tearing his ACL last year, and the expectation before the game was that he would take a significant portion of the pass-rushing work. Instead, his 23 snaps left him far short of that kind of workload, especially on a night when the 49ers had every reason to spread the pressure around and keep Nick Bosa fresh with a healthy running mate.
The 50.4 grade also sat below Williams's own standard from last year, when he had one sack in nine games, and it was the weakest mark on the 49ers defense in the game. That makes the return more than just quiet; it makes it a continuation of the same problem, with production still lagging behind the team’s hopes for him as a difference-maker.
The next question is not whether Williams can be part of the defense. It is whether Shanahan gives him a larger share of the pass-rushing work soon enough for the 49ers to learn whether this was just a cautious first step or a sign that his impact will take longer to arrive.
