The San Francisco 49ers made a painful decision this offseason as they elected to part ways with Arik Armstead, cutting their longest-tenured player after he had refused to take a pay cut as part of a contract restructure.

But the difficulty of electing to release Armstead was eased somewhat by the fact the 49ers had the opportunity to replace him by acquiring a defensive tackle long admired by their defensive line coach Kris Kocurek.

San Francisco traded a seventh-round pick to the Houston Texans, coached by former Niners defensive coordinator DeMeco Ryans, for Maliek Collins.

Armstead was a pivotal part of the 49ers' defensive line when healthy and, per Pro Football Focus, was tied for the most pressures among defensive linemen in the playoffs with 16 as San Francisco suffered an agonizing overtime defeat in Super Bowl 58.

But Collins outperformed both Armstead and the 49ers' Pro Bowl defensive tackle Javon Hargrave in terms of consistently producing pressure in the 2023 regular season.

Collins' pressure rate of 11.1 percent last season was 10th among defensive tackles with at least 10 pressures, per Sports Info Solutions.

And the widely respected Kocurek believes Collins is a perfect fit to excel lined up next to Hargrave as a starter defensive tackle for the Niners.

In an interview with Matt Barrows of The Athletic, Kocurek said:

"I really liked him coming out of Nebraska — just the explosion that he can generate through his lower body. He jumps off the tape. He can play in the backfield, he can re-create the line of scrimmage and he’s really athletic on the back side to make plays. And then it’s the ability to manipulate things in the pass rush — you know, get a guard to lean one way and then beat him another. … I’ve always liked his skill set, I think his skill set is tailor-made to play the attack-style nature we play. And he’s played in some attack schemes throughout his career. He was down there in Houston, so there will be a lot of familiarity from working with DeMeco and those guys in Houston and then coming here and doing very similar type things."

Kocurek has done an excellent job of getting the best out of players on the defensive line whom the 49ers acquired in exchange for very little, with the likes of Charles Omenihu, Arden Key and Kerry Hyder Jr. among his success stories.

In Collins, Kocurek and the Niners are getting a player already on an upward trajectory after a career-high five sacks in 2023. If Kocurek can validate his assessment by extracting more production from him this coming season, there won't be any lingering thoughts about their surprise parting with Armstead.

National spotlight will be on the San Francisco 49ers well before their primetime opener to 2024 season

The attention is understandable.