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49ers LB De'Vondre Campbell is One of the Worst Starters in the NFL

It's time for the 49ers to admit they were wrong about Campbell and give someone else a shot.

Grant Cohn

Sep 22, 2024; Inglewood, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers linebacker De'Vondre Campbell (59) fouls Los Angeles Rams tight end Tyler Higbee (89) in the fourth quarter at SoFi Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images
Sep 22, 2024; Inglewood, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers linebacker De'Vondre Campbell (59) fouls Los Angeles Rams tight end Tyler Higbee (89) in the fourth quarter at SoFi Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images / Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images
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The 49ers need to make a change to their starting lineup pronto.

Linebacker De'Vondre Campbell currently is one of the worst starters in the NFL regardless of position. Calling him a liability is an understatement. He's terrible in every way. He's painfully slow, he has no burst and he can't change directions. Through six games, he has missed 25 percent of his tackle opportunities and allowed a completion percentage of 81.8 according to SISDataHub.

And now Campbell will have to face a Chiefs offense that's coming off a Bye week. Which means head coach Andy Reid no doubt has brainstormed two dozen ways to exploit Campbell this upcoming Sunday.

The 49ers can't let Campbell start that game. They need to bench him and start second-year linebacker Dee Winters or rookie linebacker Tatum Bethune. Realistically, both young players are better options than Campbell at this point in his career.

Remember, Campbell is 31 and the Packers released him just a few months ago. If they felt he had any gas left in the tank, he'd still be in Green Bay. They decided he's washed up, and they were right. The only reason the 49ers signed Campbell in the first place is because Dre Greenlaw tore his Achilles and Eric Kendricks chose to sign with the Cowboys instead of the 49ers. Campbell was the backup plan to the 49ers' backup plan.

It's time for the 49ers to admit they were wrong about Campbell and give someone else a shot.

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Grant Cohn
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.

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