49ers' DC Robert Saleh explains why team chose 7th-round pick as Fred Warner's replacement

Last week was devastating for the San Francisco 49ers, as they not long lost the Week 6 battle with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 30-19, but they also lost linebacker Fred Warner to a season-ending ankle injury on a run-of-the-mill run play.

It's impossible to replace a future Hall of Famer and four-time All-Pro like Warner with just one guy, but second-year linebacker Tatum Bethune is the next man up, and on Thursday, 49ers defensive coordinator Robert Saleh explained why he believes that Bethune is up to the task.

“First off, with Tatum, Fred didn’t practice throughout OTAs, so he had a lot of banked reps with the ones throughout OTAs which is actually a benefit at this point," Saleh said. "But, Tatum’s made of the right stuff. He works the right way, he communicates the right way, he does things the right way, he’s very confident in his ability. I’ve said this to a million people as it pertains to drop off, I dare any of you to go to Tatum and say, ‘well, you’re a backup.’ Tatum doesn’t see that. His teammates don’t see that. Every player in that locker room believes that they can start and they can play at a high level. They just need an opportunity to do so. This is now Tatum’s opportunity and the growth that he’ll experience between now and game 17 is going to be significant. I can promise that. I’m excited to see him grow throughout this process.”

As a rookie in 2024, Bethune played just 7% of the team's defensive snaps in 11 games and was a core special teamer. So far this year, he's played 13% of the defensive snaps through six game and has recorded 14 tackles, doubling his total from last year.

Dee Winters will obviously still start at linebacker as well with Luke Gifford continuing to get snaps, but Bethune will take on a larger role and wear the green dot.

"[This is] Tatum’s opportunity to go run the defense and run the show," Saleh said. "Tatum just needs to be Tatum. He doesn’t have to make any plays that are spectacular. He just needs to make his play. As he gets reps and he gets comfortable, a lot of people have got to remember, he’s only in his second year, you can really call him a rookie because he didn’t get much playing time last year. He’s just got to bank these reps, see the game, and again, the more he gets reps, the more he sees, the faster he will get.”

Rookie linebacker Nick Martin should make his debut in Week 7 after being a healthy scratch for the first six weeks. He'll first have to prove himself as a special teamer and depth piece, but they took him in this year's draft in case Warner went down due to the rookie's strong communication skills. But, until then, this Bethune's job.

More 49ers: 49ers kicker shares heart-warming stories about his father

This article originally appeared on Niners Wire: 49ers Robert Saleh explains why Tatum Bethune will replace Fred Warner