Shanahan: We’ve got two safeties back there as good as anyone doing it

Do the 49ers have a top-5 safety group in the NFL?

The 49ers battled an up-and-coming Eagles team that was exceptionally competitive Sunday. Philadelphia head coach Nick Sirianni targeted the secondary deep several times.

Head coach Kyle Shanahan responded to the play of the secondary below.

What were your impressions of the secondary and just your takeaways from their ability to stop some of those deep passes that the Eagles were trying?

“I thought they did a real good job, especially our safeties down the field. We were playing a lot of two-shell defense, trying to deal with some of the stuff with the threat of their running quarterback. And they got a couple of one-on-ones down the field where he just launched it.

And that’s a tough situation for safeties to be with receivers who usually have a little more speed and more ball skills. But I think we’ve got two safeties back there as good as anyone at doing it. And [S Jaquiski] Tartt and [DB] Jimmie Ward the times that they got caught down the field, there was no panic, they didn’t PI the guy, they actually made plays on the ball and did a hell of a job.”

Quarterback Jalen Hurts was 2/7 on passes of 20+ yards. I spoke on how the secondary played great, especially when they responded to a 91-yard heave and didn’t allow any more explosive plays. Getting Emmanuel Moseley back this week would make this secondary group even stronger.

I talked about how spry Tartt looked in the final preseason game. And his impact has been shown in the last two games. In training camp, the strong safety position looked like a battle between Tavon Wilson and Talanoa Hufanga. Now, the safety group feels stronger than ever. Wilson and Hufanga both had solid camps, so the depth is satisfactory.