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Former 49ers S Tashaun Gipson Suspended 6 Games for PEDs
I guess we know who won't be the 49ers' free safety this season.
The NFL just suspended former 49ers free safety Tashaun Gipson for the first six games of the upcoming season for violating the league's performance-enhancing drug policy, according to ESPN's Adam Schefter.
Gipson, who will turn 34 in August, was the 49ers' starting free safety each of the past two seasons. In that time, he intercepted 6 passes in 33 starts -- he was a legitimate ball hawk. But in the Super Bowl a few months ago, he lost track of a deep pass from Patrick Mahomes and gave up a 52-yard catch to Mecole Hardman. It was clear that Gipson was near the end of his career. Now he may not play again. Not the best way to go out.
In his place, the 49ers most likely will start second-year safety Ji'Ayir Brown, who intercepted three passes in just seven starts last season. He should be a clear and immediate upgrade over Gipson simply because he's younger. Those two produced similar athletic testing numbers when they entered the NFL Draft.
Next to Brown, the 49ers will start Talanoa Hufanga, a former All Pro strong safety who's coming off a torn ACL he suffered midway through last season. He is expected to be ready to start Week 1.
If Hufanga struggles to regain his All Pro form, the 49ers could conceivably sign Gipson after Week 6 if they desperately need another safety. But I'm guessing his career is over.
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.