All 49ers

Kalia Davis Stands Out in the 49ers' Preseason Loss to the Titans

Grant Cohn

Dec 3, 2023; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; San Francisco 49ers defensive tackle Kalia Davis (93) celebrates his sack against the Philadelphia Eagles during the fourth quarter at Lincoln Financial Field. Mandatory Credit: Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports
Dec 3, 2023; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; San Francisco 49ers defensive tackle Kalia Davis (93) celebrates his sack against the Philadelphia Eagles during the fourth quarter at Lincoln Financial Field. Mandatory Credit: Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports / Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports
In this story:

The 2022 49ers draft class is one of the worst in franchise history.

With their final pick, they took Brock Purdy, one of the best selections in franchise history. But look at the rest of the class: Drake Jackson, who's out for the year. Ty Davis-Price, who's no longer on the team. Danny Gray, who has one career catch. Spencer Burford, who got benched last year. Samuel Womack, who has played 216 defensive snaps in his career. Nick Zakelj, who has played a mere 12 offensive snaps. Tariq Castro-Fields, who never made the team. And then there's Kalia Davis.

The 49ers took Davis in the sixth round. He was injured when they took him -- had he been healthy, he would have gone much earlier. But the 49ers essentially had to redshirt him for his rookie season. So in two seasons, he has played just 54 defensive snaps.

But Davis played 30 defensive snaps on Saturday in the 49ers' 17-13 preseason loss to the Titans and he was arguably their best defensive tackle. He recorded a sack and a tackle for loss and he blew up one more play in the backfield. He was getting constant penetration against the run and the pass.

Suddenly, Davis looks like an ascending player who could help the 49ers this season. They've had issues defending the run recently, and a stout, powerful defensive tackle such as Davis could help fix the issue. He's competing with Kevin Givens to play in the second-string defensive line.

Published
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.

Home/News