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Quality Over Quantity Should Benefit DeForest Buckner in 2017

Defensive lineman DeForest Bucker played a league-high 1,006 snaps last season. That's an outrageous number even before considering he missed one game with a foot injury.

According to Pro Football Focus, only three other NFL linemen topped 900 snaps last season.

“There were times out there last year where I was dead tired and they wouldn’t take me out,” Buckner said. “I feel like I’m hurting the team staying out there and not being able to live up to my full potential when I’m out there.”

San Francisco 49ers defensive line coach Jeff Zgonina hopes to remedy that problem in 2017.