Fred Warner Is The 49ers' Career Tackle Leader, On The Column That Counts Assists

Fred Warner is the leading tackler in San Francisco 49ers history. He got there in the second quarter at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Thursday, on the third tackle of a game he finished with eleven.

The club put the arithmetic on its own website after the win: Warner entered Week 1 "needing two tackles to tie Pro Football Hall of Fame LB Patrick Willis' franchise record of 950 career tackles." He had 948. Two tied it and the third broke it, and the record changed hands before halftime of San Francisco's first game of the season.

Kyle Shanahan gave him the game ball after the 27-7 win.

The record is kept on combined tackles, and combined is not solo.

A tackle credited to one man is a solo tackle. A tackle credited to two is an assist for each of them, and the combined column adds both together. Willis's 950 is 733 solo and 217 assisted across 112 games. Warner's total, now 959 across 122, is 602 solo and 357 assisted.

So Willis still leads on the column that credits one man, by 131. Warner leads on assists by 140. Per game, Willis is ahead on combined tackles, 8.48 to 7.86, and on solo tackles, 6.54 to 4.93. Warner is ahead on assists, 2.93 a game to 1.94.

Warner has the record because he has played ten more games than Willis ever did. Willis played eight seasons and never played a ninth. Thursday opened Warner's ninth.

Willis said in March that he wanted it broken.

Willis talked about the record on the "Real Ones" podcast six months before it fell, in remarks NBC Sports Bay Area published on March 15. "I just got chills right now just thinking about," he said. "A lot of people don't understand records. ... All those things are meant to be broken."

Thursday was also his first regular-season game since 2025.

Warner played six games in 2025 and finished the season on injured reserve. The club opened his practice window on January 13, according to its own transaction log. He played 53 of San Francisco's 61 defensive snaps against the Rams, led the team with those eleven tackles, five solo and six assisted, and forced the Tyler Higbee fumble that Keion White recovered at the Los Angeles 43 in the fourth quarter. It was the 18th forced fumble of his career and it produced Eddy Piñeiro's 56-yard field goal.

Kyle Shanahan gave a body part for Jake Tonges and would not give a timetable.

Speaking after the game, Shanahan said of the tight end that it "wasn't good," that it was not an ACL, and that it was an "MCL, I believe." The hedge is his. Nick Wagoner of ESPN reported that the full testing waits until the team is back in the Bay Area from a 16-hour flight. No timetable has been given, by the coach or by anyone else, and the club has published no designation.

Tonges was hurt in the second quarter after eight offensive snaps and did not return. He re-signed with San Francisco on March 11 for two years and $8 million, with $5.5 million guaranteed and four void years on the back end.

De'Zhaun Stribling has an ankle, and the Achilles is intact.

"They checked his Achilles," Shanahan said of the rookie receiver, per Wagoner. "They said that was intact, but they're not exactly sure of the magnitude of the ankle injury." One of those two things is settled and the other is not.

Stribling started, played 21 of 65 offensive snaps and was not thrown to once. He was hurt on a second-quarter play, returned, was hurt again and was listed out of the game in the fourth quarter.

Neither man has moved on the roster, and there is no deadline forcing it.

San Francisco's transaction log, read Friday afternoon, carries nothing newer than the three moves it processed on September 10: Alfred Collins to injured reserve, KhaDarel Hodge and Ogbo Okoronkwo up from the practice squad for the game. There is no injured-reserve designation on Tonges and none on Stribling. Both are still on the club's active table.

The club does not play again until Miami on September 20. That is ten days, against the seven a Sunday-to-Sunday week gives, because San Francisco opened on a Thursday. Nothing has to be filed on either man until San Francisco sets its roster for that game.

What it costs, if it costs anything, is depth at two positions the offense just leaned on.

San Francisco carries three tight ends: George Kittle, Luke Farrell and Tonges. Farrell played 46 of 65 snaps on Thursday and Kittle 30. Khalil Dinkins and Brayden Willis are the two tight ends on the practice squad. At receiver the club carries six, and one of them started the opener without a target before leaving it twice.

Mike Evans caught six of seven for 49 yards and a two-yard touchdown in his first game with San Francisco, tied with Deebo Samuel for the team lead.

Sources: 49ers.com roster page, transaction log and Week 1 takeaways, read September 11; the game ball, via Deseret News, September 11; Patrick Willis on the "Real Ones" podcast, via NBC Sports Bay Area, March 15; the Tonges contract terms via 49erscap.com, March 17; Pro Football Reference career pages for Fred Warner and Patrick Willis; the official NFL game book for San Francisco at Los Angeles, September 10; Nick Wagoner, ESPN.