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Should the 49ers Sign New York Jets Cornerback D.J. Reed?

The 49ers originally drafted Reed in 2018, but they waived him early in his career and he got claimed by the Jets where he eventually flourished under former Jets head coach Robert Saleh.

Grant Cohn

Dec 18, 2022; East Rutherford, New Jersey, USA; New York Jets cornerback D.J. Reed (4) celebrates a defensive stop against the Detroit Lions during the second half at MetLife Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Ed Mulholland-Imagn Images
Dec 18, 2022; East Rutherford, New Jersey, USA; New York Jets cornerback D.J. Reed (4) celebrates a defensive stop against the Detroit Lions during the second half at MetLife Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Ed Mulholland-Imagn Images / Ed Mulholland-Imagn Images
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One of the top free agents on the market this offseason will be D.J. Reed and lots of NFL analysts expect the 49ers to sign him.

The 49ers originally drafted Reed in 2018, but they waived him early in his career and he got claimed by the Jets where he eventually flourished under former Jets head coach Robert Saleh.

Now Saleh is back with the 49ers as their defensive coordinator and Pro Football Focus says he should bring Reed with him.

"Highlighted in PFF’s NFL free agency signings we want to see, Reed and the 49ers should have a mutual interest in reaching a deal to reunite the cornerback with his former defensive play caller in New York," writes PFF analyst Mason Cameron. "Robert Saleh highly values outside cornerbacks who can stand up in man coverage in his scheme, something Reed has excelled at, earning an 83.1 man coverage grade in their time together."

I'm sure Saleh would love to have Reed on the 49ers defense, but they probably can't afford him. They haven't spent big money on two cornerbacks at the same time under head coach Kyle Shanahan, and they just gave Deommodore Lenoir a lucrative five-year extension a few months ago.

If the 49ers sign a defensive player this offseason, it's more likely they will sign a free safety and/or a linebacker. During Saleh's first stint as the 49ers' defensive coordinator, the 49ers spent more than $9 million per season on Jimmie Ward who was the starting free safety at the time. Saleh probably wants to find a similar player.

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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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