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Did the 49ers Give Up on Cornerback Ambry Thomas too Soon?

Yet another wasted early draft pick.

Grant Cohn

Dec 17, 2023; Glendale, Arizona, USA; San Francisco 49ers cornerback Ambry Thomas (20) against the Arizona Cardinals at State Farm Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports
Dec 17, 2023; Glendale, Arizona, USA; San Francisco 49ers cornerback Ambry Thomas (20) against the Arizona Cardinals at State Farm Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports / Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports
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Yet another wasted early draft pick.

The 49ers announced that they have waived former third-round draft pick cornerback Ambry Thomas from the Injured Reserve List with three games remaining in the regular season.

Thomas broke his forearm during the 49ers' 17-13 preseason loss to the Tennessee Titans on Aug. 10 and went on season-ending I.R. Had the 49ers not waived him, he would have become an unrestricted free agent in a couple months, so the 49ers essentially gave him a head start in his search for a new team.

The 49ers took Thomas with pick no. 102 in the 2021 NFL Draft. As a rookie, he was solid. He started five games and intercepted Matthew Stafford in overtime of Week 18 to send the 49ers to the playoffs. He seemed promising. Even last season, he played 49 percent of the defensive snaps and even started two games in the playoffs. But they benched in the Super Bowl in favor of veteran Logan Ryan who gave up the game-losing touchdown catch to Mecole Hardman in overtime.

It's possible Thomas will catch on elsewhere and have success. He's still just 25 years old. And the 49ers have released quality cornerbacks in the past. Just a few months ago, they waived Samuel Womack who has become a quality no. 3 cornerback for the Colts this season. Also in 2020, they waived D.J. Reed who has become one of the top cornerbacks in the league for the Jets the past few seasons.

It will be interesting to see where Thomas goes from here.

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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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