Why NaVorro Bowman Has the Chance to Become the New Face of the 49ers in 2015

Wanted: a new face for the San Francisco 49ers.

Every team has one player who jumps to mind when you think of them.  For the Seattle Seahawks, that’s Russell Wilson. For the New England Patriots, that’s Tom Brady.  For the Green Bay Packers, that’s Aaron Rodgers.  For the 49ers…

The 49ers may have lost the top four faces of their franchise this offseason.  Likely future Hall of Famer Patrick Willis shockingly retired in March.  Franchise-leading rusher Frank Gore was not re-signed and ended up in Indianapolis.  Defensive captain Justin Smith’s fate remains up in the air as he meets with team leadership to talk about his future.  Head coach Jim Harbaugh was fired after an 8-8 season and has brought his unique level of intensity to the University of Michigan.

Marcio Jose Sanchez/Associated Press

If the 49ers lose Willis, Gore and Smith in one offseason, that’s three legendary 49ers gone in one blow.  All three are likely future members of the 49ers Hall of Fame; the only other player currently on the roster who really seems assured to join them is tackle Joe Staley.  Willis and Smith were the 49ers' two defensive captains and have been for years, while Gore was the face of the franchise through the dark years of the Mike Nolan and Mike Singletary eras.  It’s a massive leadership void.

Who will step up and fill that void?  Who will become the new face of the franchise going forward?

The easy answer would be Colin Kaepernick, as he fits the standard profile for such a player.  With quarterback being the single most important position on the roster, most teams’ most recognizable player is, in fact, the quarterback.  Eight of the 10 best-selling jerseys last season were quarterbacks, and the 49ers’ top-selling jersey was Kaepernick, according to Dick’s Sporting Goods.

It’s not just positional importance that makes Kaepernick the easy choice; he’s also a young, exciting player with the potential to be a human highlight reel.  He is one of the top mobile quarterbacks in the NFL and has a cannon for an arm.  In his short career, he’s already led the 49ers to one Super Bowl and multiple NFC Championship appearances.  He’s had a very successful career, and if this was written before the 2014 season, he’d be the only serious choice.

Tony Avelar/Associated Press

Of course, Kaepernick’s poor 2014 season puts his long-term future with the franchise in jeopardy.  If he bounces back to his 2012-13 form, he’ll take his place as the face of the franchise for years to come, as the best quarterback the team has had since at least Jeff Garcia in the early 2000s.  If he has another poor season in 2015, he could find himself a cap casualty going forward.  It’s very much a make-or-break season for Kaepernick.

With that in mind, I’m going for a slightly safer pick for the face of the franchise going forward—one who’s not going anywhere for the next couple of seasons, at least.  Rising to fill the void in both the defensive leadership and the face of the franchise will be middle linebacker NaVorro Bowman.

When we last saw Bowman, he was being carted off the field in January 2014 during the NFC Championship, having torn his ACL and MCL in a gruesome injury.  He had made his third-consecutive All-Pro team, been given the Butkus Award as the best professional linebacker and won the Len Eshmont Award, which is the franchise’s equivalent of the MVP.

That 2013 season felt like the beginning of the passing of the torch from Willis to Bowman as the heart and soul of the center of the 49ers defense.  The two had been alternating as the best team inside linebacker, at least according to Pro Football Focus’ grades, with Bowman grading out higher in odd-numbered years and Willis topping the table in even-numbered seasons.

That effect, however, lessened Bowman’s national recognition.  With Willis having been established as a great linebacker before Bowman’s arrival on the scene, Bowman always seemed to play second banana in the media.  Yes, Bowman was an All-Pro in 2011 and 2012, but so was Willis.  They were called the best linebacking duo in football, but Willis’ name came first, with almost no exceptions.  In 2013, you began to see articles pondering if Bowman had surpassed Willis, but it was always a hypothetical—could Bowman possibly be better than the legendary Willis?

Marcio Jose Sanchez/Associated Press

Just looking at the search volume for Willis and Bowman since Bowman was drafted shows you the extent of the issue.  With the exception of January 2014, when Bowman was injured, Willis has been the much more known name.  It’s always “Willis and Bowman,” in the same way that it’s “Batman and Robin”—no matter how good Bowman became, he was always in the shadow of his more established partner.

Well, Willis is gone now, and Bowman has the opportunity to take up the mantle of the defensive leader of the franchise.

There’s always the worry that a player will never be the same after suffering a massive injury like Bowman did.  However, he did, in fact, return to practice in April as part of the voluntary minicamp.  He “feels great” and is “passing all the tests” at this point.  He’ll continue to have aches and pains throughout the 2015 season as he continues to recover, but 18 months of recovery time from injury to return should be more than enough for the new ligament to fully graft to the bone.

This isn’t a Marcus Lattimore situation, where the damage was so severe as to end his career.  From every indication we have up to this point, Bowman should end up fully recovered and back to his old self.  It may be overly optimistic to expect an All-Pro performance from Week 1, but Bowman should quickly regain the form that made him arguably the best linebacker in football.

He also seems eager and willing to rise to the challenge of taking over a leadership role, according to an interview on 49ers.com:

"

Seeing my teammates willing to take my command, and the coaches believing in me and putting me in that spot to command the defense and make sure everyone is getting on the same page - I've enjoyed that my entire life. Being a linebacker, it requires you to be a leader. Being able to get back out there and do what I love doing is a great thing right now.

"

If Bowman’s back to his old self, look out.  From 2011 through 2013, no defensive player in football racked up more Approximate Value than Bowman did, as he averaged more than 16 points per season.  That’s All-Pro-level performance every single season; that’s J.J. Watt-esque.  His combined Pro Football Focus grade of 67.6 over those three seasons is second among inside linebackers only to Patrick Willis’ 68.6; the next-closest mark is Derrick Johnson’s 53.7, and no one else is above 40.  His 327 tackles over that time period led the NFL.  Any way you slice it, he has already established himself, on the field, as one of the premier defenders in the NFL—possibly the best.

And yet, Bowman didn’t even get a single vote for Defensive Player of the Year in 2013, when he arguably had a better season than winner Luke Kuechly.  He didn’t get a single vote in 2012, though to be fair, J.J. Watt won that award going away.  He did get a single vote in 2011, marking the only time the NFL media has even considered him for best defensive player in the league.

With Willis out of the picture, this is Bowman’s opportunity to step into the national spotlight.  This is his opportunity to show the wider sports media that he is the best linebacker in football.  This is his opportunity to take over leadership of what has been a top-five defense every year since he first stepped into the starting lineup and show that he is one of the key players who makes it tick.

San Francisco 49ers fans already know how great Bowman is.  With so many great players leaving the 49ers this offseason, the stage is now set for Bowman to step up as the national face of the franchise.  His return from injury is the single most hopeful piece of news the 49ers have gotten this offseason.

Bryan Knowles is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report, covering the San Francisco 49ers.  Follow him @BryKno on twitter.