Dee Ford expects to be more explosive after knee surgery

Dee Ford is expecting to be a lot more productive in his second year with the San Francisco 49ers.

The 29-year-old was limited to 11 games in 2019 due to nagging knee and hamstring problems. Ford underwent offseason surgery to deal with the tendinitis that had developed in his left knee, and expects to be a completely different player in 2020 as a result.

“I’m confident moving forward,” Ford said, via Josh Dubow of the Associated Press. “I feel great right now. I’m able to actually explode off of this knee. Thinking back on it, I can’t believe I played a whole season on it. We knew at the end of the day, what we had to do, had to be surgical. But I didn’t want to miss the season. We had too much going on. I didn’t want to miss that. It’s in the bag now. I’m confident in that.”

Despite being limited, Ford still collected 6.5 sacks. It’s a tantalizing preview of what he could do as part of that defense if he can stay on the field. That is, of course, assuming that the 49ers opt to hold on to him.