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The 49ers Activate Center Drake Nugent from the Practice Squad

This move is extremely intriguing.

Grant Cohn

Mar 2, 2024; Indianapolis, IN, USA; Michigan offensive lineman Drake Nugent (OL54) talks to the media during the 2024 NFL Combine at Lucas Oil Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Trevor Ruszkowski-Imagn Images
Mar 2, 2024; Indianapolis, IN, USA; Michigan offensive lineman Drake Nugent (OL54) talks to the media during the 2024 NFL Combine at Lucas Oil Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Trevor Ruszkowski-Imagn Images / Trevor Ruszkowski-Imagn Images
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SANTA CLARA -- This move is extremely intriguing.

The 49ers just activated undrafted free agent rookie center Drake Nugent from the practice squad for their Monday night game against the Detroit Lions. And Nugent officially is active and suiting up, which means he will make his career debut tonight.

Nugent played college football at Stanford and Michigan and was one of the 49ers' top undrafted free agents this year. Now that they're officially eliminated from the playoffs, they surely want to sit veterans and play younger players so the front office knows what it has heading into the offseason.

The 49ers starting center, Jake Brendel, is arguably the worst starter on the team, and he's 32. The 49ers need to release him this offseason and get younger and more talented at his position. So it would be smart to give Nugent some playing time in the final two games. Who knows, maybe he is the 49ers' starting center of the future? It would be good to know exactly what he can do in a live NFL game before spending big money or big draft capital on someone else.

The 49ers almost certainly will make major changes this offseason to their offensive line because it's the worst position group on the team. If they're serious about making Brock Purdy their franchise quarterback, then they must invest in pass protection in particular and Brendel is one of the worst pass protectors on the team.

Time to see what Nugent can do.

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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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