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Should the 49ers Sign Joey Bosa if the Chargers Release Him?

The 49ers already are one of the oldest teams in the NFL -- they need to get younger.

Grant Cohn

Should the 49ers Sign Joey Bosa if the Chargers Release Him?
Should the 49ers Sign Joey Bosa if the Chargers Release Him? /
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The 49ers need another defensive end Joey Bosa might be a free agent soon if the Chargers release. Should the 49ers sign him? Let's discuss.

The 49ers absolutely should not re-sign Chase Young, whom they traded for at the deadline this past season. He was a horrible disappointment. He can sign somewhere that doesn't mind if a defensive end jogs around the field most of the time.

So when Young leaves, how will they replace him? They still have Drake Jackson, but so far he's been a bust. They could draft a defensive end in Round 1, but they really need an offensive tackle and a cornerback, too.

Which brings us to Nick Bosa's older brother, Joey. He'll turn 29 in July, he has zero guaranteed money left on his contract and his salary cap number next season will be an astronomical $36.6 million -- far too much for any non-quarterback. Either Bosa will agree to a pay cut, or he most likely will get released.

I'm guessing he'll get released. In that case, should the 49ers sign him?

Absolutely not.

The 49ers already are one of the oldest teams in the NFL -- they need to get younger, especially on their defensive line, where both Arik Armstead and Javon Hargrave are over 30. And Armstead seems to be breaking down.

Bosa seems to be breaking down as well -- he has played just 485 snaps the past two years.

And yet, I fully expect the 49ers to sign Bosa if he gets released, because Nick Bosa will want him on the 49ers, and the 49ers bend over backward to keep him happy (see the firing of Steve Wilks).

Call me cynical.

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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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