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Should the 49ers Sign Tre’Davius White?

To White's credit, he has played well when he has been on the field the past couple years -- he just hasn't been on the field very much.

Grant Cohn

Should the 49ers Sign Tre’Davius White?
Should the 49ers Sign Tre’Davius White? /
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The 49ers need a cornerback and Tre'Davious White is available. Should they sign him?

White is a three time All Pro who arguably was the best cornerback in the NFL at one point in his career. And he's 29-years old, which means he isn't ancient. And he has the same agent as Charvarius Ward, who's the 49ers' No. 1 cornerback. So they would be a natural tandem. 

But in the past two seasons, White has played a grand total of just 10 games after suffering an Achilles tendon tear. To White's credit, he has played well when he has been on the field the past couple years -- he just hasn't been on the field very much.

So should the 49ers take a chance on him?

I can see why they would be tempted to sign him, because five years ago they signed Richard Sherman when he was coming off an Achilles tear, and he went on to have a Pro Bowl season for the 49ers. Perhaps White can do the same.

But signing him is a big risk, because the 49ers need someone who can play. They can't afford to start a backup for most of the season. That's why they released Arik Armstead -- they don't want old, injury-prone players anymore. 

Signing White would go against the theme of the 49ers' offseason, which is to get more durable as a team. The 49ers would be better off drafting a cornerback who hasn't torn his Achilles and developing him.

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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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