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49ers Reportedly Interested in Signing Bobby Wagner

Pairing Wagner with Fred Warner would give the 49ers the best linebacker tandem in the NFL, but also the most expensive one.

Grant Cohn

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Should the 49ers sign another All Pro linebacker to pair with Fred Warner?

The 49ers reportedly are interested in signing middle linebacker Bobby Wagner, who got released by the Seattle Seahawks this week, according to the NFL Network.

Wagner is a six-time All Pro who has gone to eight consecutive Pro Bowls -- he's a future Hall of Famer, and he's still elite.

Which means he should be expensive. The Seahawks released him because they need to get younger, not because Wagner is washed up. He should be able to sign a lucrative two- or three-year deal on the open market.

Should the 49ers give him that multi-year deal?

Pairing him with Warner would give the 49ers the best linebacker tandem in the NFL, but also the most expensive one. Do the 49ers really need an expensive linebacker who will turn 32 in July?

Don't the 49ers have bigger needs elsewhere? They already have arguably the best middle linebacker in the NFL -- Warner. But they don't have anyone near Warner's caliber in the secondary. Wouldn't signing a No. 1 cornerback be a better use of the 49ers' cap space?

And don't Wagner and Warner play the same position? They're both middle linebackers. One would have to change positions.

And isn't Wagner starting to decline? He's still a monster against the run, but he's vulnerable in coverage, as the 49ers have shown numerous times. Last season, Wagner gave up a completion percentage of 81.6 and a passer rating of 97.9. Not great.

I'm guessing the 49ers' interest in Wagner is solely to pump up his price tag, so a team such as the Rams won't get him for cheap.

The 49ers can't seriously be considering spending another hefty price tag on a linebacker, can they?

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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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