49ers Sign Ray-Ray McCloud to 2-Year $10.4 Million Deal

One could even say the 49ers splurged.

Grant Cohn | Mar 17, 2022

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San Francisco 49ers

The 49ers just signed the top return man on the market.

They gave former Pittsburgh Steeler Ray-Ray McCloud a two-year deal worth up to a whopping $10.4 million, according to The NFL Network. That's a lot of dough for a kickoff and punt return specialist. One could even say the 49ers splurged.

Of course, they didn't splurge on Tier 1 cornerback such as J.C. Jackson, or a Tier 1 pass rusher such as Chandler Jones or Von Miller, but they got the top return man available and that's something.

McCloud averaged 9.7 yards per punt return last season, which is impressive. He also returned kickoffs and was serviceable, plus he plays some offense as well, although he fumbles frequently.

In a vacuum, this signing is fine, even if it's a bit rich for a return specialist. But when you look at the big picture, it's a bargain-bin signing by a team that should be adding big-time impact players that will push them from being one of the best teams in the league to THE best team in the league.

McCloud doesn't move the needle. Neither does Charvarius Ward or Oren Burks or Hassan Ridgeway. Individually, they're all good signings, but together they don't make the 49ers Super Bowl favorites. And that should be the 49ers' goal this offseason -- to become Super Bowl favorites. To go all in. That's what they did the last time they won a Super Bowl. They brought in Deion Sanders, Ken Norton Jr., Richard Dent and Rickey Jackson.

Maybe the 49ers will go all in tomorrow.

Published Mar 17, 2022

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.