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Is 49ers Organization on Same Page about Direction of Team?

Every offseason, the 49ers take a stand against a player and then fold.

Grant Cohn

Jul 28, 2021; Santa Clara, CA, USA; San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan (left) and general manager John Lynch during training camp at the SAP Performance Facility. Mandatory Credit: Stan Szeto-Imagn Images
Jul 28, 2021; Santa Clara, CA, USA; San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan (left) and general manager John Lynch during training camp at the SAP Performance Facility. Mandatory Credit: Stan Szeto-Imagn Images / Stan Szeto-Imagn Images
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Every offseason, the 49ers take a stand against a player and then fold.

Last offseason, it was Brandon Aiyuk. The 49ers made him an offer and told him to take it or leave it. They even considered trading him. But as the season grew near, the 49ers predictably backed down and gave him everything he wanted.

This offseason, the 49ers literally released Kyle Juszczyk because he's too old and expensive for this team. Four days later, they changed their minds and re-signed him to essentially the same deal he had before.

And just yesterday, ESPN's Adam Schefter reported that the 49ers made Dre Greenlaw a low offer, take it or leave it. Then, the Broncos beat the 49ers' offer and the 49ers desperately tried to match it at the last minute and Greenlaw rejected them. Embarassing.

What does this troubling pattern say about the 49ers? It could mean a few things.

1. It's possible they have no spine as an organization.

2. It's possible they are fractured as an organization.

3. It's possible they have no real direction as an organization.

It's also possible that all three possibilities are true.

Which brings us to the next big negotiation: Brock Purdy's contract. It sounds like the 49ers are holding firm with their initial modest offer -- it has been reported that it's $45 million per season.

If the 49ers continue their pattern, Purdy will hold out for OTAs, minicamp and most of training camp. And then, just before the season starts, the 49ers will give him the contract he wants.

Let's see if they break their pattern this year.

They need to break it.

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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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