FanHouse Marques Douglas

Here's a free-agent signing that won't get a lot of attention but could make a major impact on two teams: Defensive end Marques Douglas has departed the San Francisco 49ers and signed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Last season I wrote that Douglas was the best player no one knows, and although he slowed down a bit late in the year, I still think he was one of the best defensive ends in the league last season. He finished fourth in the NFL with 12.0 stuffs last season, and Paul Zimmerman of Sports Illustrated, who's as good as it gets when it comes to assessing line play, sang Douglas's praises.

Douglas is expected to start at left end for the Buccaneers, but I'm not sure end in a 4-3 defense is where he'll be best used. Douglas really had the perfect skill set to play the 3-4 end spot he occupied in San Francisco, and I have a feeling the 49ers will miss his presence more than the Buccaneers will benefit from it.

San Francisco 49ers defensive end Marques Douglas is both an outstanding player and an anonymous player.

How outstanding is he? Douglas ranks second in the league in stuffs, an unofficial but useful statistic measuring tackles at or behind the line of scrimmage on running plays. (For some reason, defensive ends who stop quarterbacks behind the line of scrimmage are celebrated, but defensive ends who stop running backs behind the line of scrimmage are ignored.)

And how anonymous is he? Even when he's praised, he's slighted. Paul Zimmerman of Sports Illustrated wrote that he's an All-Pro candidate, adding, "Douglas is going so hard and at such a furious pace that I wonder whether or not he'll be able to keep it up all season." Except that while lavishing praise on Douglas, Zimmerman mis-stated his first name, calling him "Maurice."

The only person I've seen praise Douglas while calling him by his correct name is my FanHouse colleague JJ Cooper, who called him The Great Unknown. So there you have it, Marques. We love you here at FanHouse, even if the rest of the football world doesn't even know your name.

When people talk about the 49ers defense, they talk about Patrick Willis, Bryant Young, Nate Clements or the now-injured Manny Lawson. But after paying close attention to the line play in the Steelers-49ers game, I'm convinced that 49ers defensive end Marques Douglas played one of the better games I've seen in recent years.

Douglas spent most of the game lined up against Steelers Pro Bowler Alan Faneca. Facing Faneca, Douglas would have clocked in with a good effort if he could just occupy Faneca and work a stalemate. But he did much more than that. Douglas ended up leading the 49ers with eight tackles while also picking up half a sack. When you consider that 3-4 ends often struggle to record any tackles (it's the linebacker's jobs to pick up the tackles), it was an amazing effort.

Douglas recorded tackles on three straight plays in the first quarter and picked up half a sack in the second quarter, but he was even better in the third quarter. He managed to get free from Faneca for a tackle on a first down, then beat Faneca again on the next play to pressure Ben Roethlisberger, forcing him to tuck the ball and run. Three plays later he beat Jerame Tuman to tackle Najeh Davenport for a two-yard loss. Later in the quarter he once again beat a Steeler tight end to stuff Willie Parker for a one-yard gain, then beat Faneca to blow up Parker's running lane on the next play by getting into the backfield.

As Tom points out, the 49ers still need a nose tackle to really make the 3-4 work, but if Douglas can keep playing like this, the defensive end spots are capably filled with Douglas and Bryant Young.