49ers set to sign LB Kendricks, trade for Texans defensive tackle

SANTA CLARA — The 49ers’ defensive makeover this offseason started with firing coordinator Steve Wilks and it’s now about changing personnel.

Leading into today’s 1 p.m. kickoff of the new league year, the 49ers are poised to make multiple moves, including the signing of linebacker Eric Kendricks and the trading for defensive tackle Maliek Collins.

Those additions follow two-year deals hatched with defensive ends Leonard Floyd and Yetur Gross-Matos and defensive tackle Jordan Elliott.

Kendricks’ arrival, on a one-year deal, should at the very least provide cover for Dre Greenlaw, who sustained a torn Achilles tendon in last month’s Super Bowl.

Collins, an eight-year veteran, will be acquired in exchange for a seventh-round draft pick, according to ESPN. He and Elliott come aboard to help offset the expected release of Arik Armstead, as well as Javon Kinlaw, the latter being a 2020 first-round pick who’s reportedly agreed to a one-year contract with the New York Jets.

All those defensive moves are intended to recharge a 49ers defense under new coordinator Nick Sorensen, whose promotion last month from pass-game specialist still hasn’t been formally announced by the 49ers.

Kendricks, 32, is a Clovis native who played at Hoover High-Fresno before coming out of UCLA in 2015 as arguably the nation’s top linebacker. Drafted in the second round by the Minnesota Vikings, Kendricks played eight years with them before moving on last year to the Los Angeles Chargers, where he totaled 117 tackles.

Kendricks’ connection to the Chargers also links him with Brandon Staley, who was fired as their coach last season and is now on the 49ers’ defensive staff.

Kendricks’ lone season as an All-Pro and Pro Bowl linebacker came with the 2019 Vikings, who fell in the divisional playoffs to the Super Bowl-bound 49ers; Kendricks intercepted Jimmy Garoppolo in that game.

Kenrick’s 1,036 career tackles rank sixth among active players; Warner ranks 16th with 766 tackles since 2018. Kendricks’ brother, Mychal, signed with the 49ers during the 2019 season but did not play a game as he finished out his 10-year career out of Cal, including stints in Philadelphia and Seattle.

Oren Burks and Demetrius Flannigan-Fowles, both of whom helped fill in after Greenlaw’s stunning exit in the Super Bowl, are free agents.

Many more personnel moves are expected today, including the release of defensive tackle Arik Armstead, a nine-year veteran and four-time captain who was to require offseason knee surgery for a torn meniscus.