49ers and Javon Hargrave Agree to Four Year $84 Million Deal

Hargrave is an excellent player -- he atones for the 49ers sin of trading DeForest Buckner.

Grant Cohn | Mar 13, 2023

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San Francisco 49ers

Huge move for the 49ers.

They just agreed to sign free agent defensive tackle Javon Hargrave to a four-year $84 million contract with a whopping $40 million guaranteed, according to reports.

Hargrave, 30, played for the Philadelphia Eagles last season and recorded 11 sacks, so the 49ers just made their main NFC rival weaker, which is a bonus. Hargrave is an excellent player -- he atones for the 49ers sin of trading DeForest Buckner. Hargrave finally can replace what the 49ers lost when they traded Buckner to Indianapolis and drafted Javon Kinlaw.

Hargrave will replace Kinlaw in the 49ers starting lineup, and will play next to Arik Armstead along the interior of the defensive line. Hargrave instantly will be the 49ers' second-best pass rusher after Nick Bosa. Finally, the 49ers have a one-two punch on the defensive line for the first time since they went to the Super Bowl a few seasons ago.

Last season, the 49ers had a great defensive lineman -- Nick Bosa, the Defensive Player of the Year -- but their defensive line as a unit was surprisingly average. Now it's a major weapon. Teams will need to have an excellent offensive line to even compete with the 49ers next season.

It seems the 49ers are making their all-in push to win a Super Bowl, which is commendable. They already have squandered four years of a Super Bowl -- they need to win now. Their core of impact players is getting older. Even Hargrave is on the downside of his career, technically, although he hasn't shown any signs of aging yet.

The 49ers should have the best defense in the league once again next season. Unfortunately for them, offense wins championships in today's NFL. Hopefully they'll sign a good offensive player next.

Published Mar 13, 2023

GRANT COHN

Grant Cohn has covered the San Francisco 49ers daily since 2011. He spent the first nine years of his career with the Santa Rosa Press Democrat where he wrote the Inside the 49ers blog and covered famous coaches and athletes such as Jim Harbaugh, Colin Kaepernick and Patrick Willis. In 2012, Inside the 49ers won Sports Blog of the Year from the Peninsula Press Club. In 2020, Cohn joined FanNation and began writing All49ers. In addition, he created a YouTube channel which has become the go-to place on YouTube to consume 49ers content. Cohn's channel typically generates roughly 3.5 million viewers per month, while the 49ers' official YouTube channel generates roughly 1.5 million viewers per month. Cohn live streams almost every day and posts videos hourly during the football season. Cohn is committed to asking the questions that 49ers fans want answered, and providing the most honest and interactive coverage in the country. His loyalty is to the reader and the viewer, not the team or any player or coach. Cohn is a new-age multimedia journalist with an old-school mentality, because his father is Lowell Cohn, the legendary sports columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1979 to 1993. The two have a live podcast every Tuesday. Grant Cohn grew up in Oakland and studied English Literature at UCLA from 2006 to 2010. He currently lives in Oakland with his wife.