The 49ers Might be in the Market for a Tight End

The 49ers could draft another tight end this year, perhaps in Round 3 again.
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John Lynch didn't reveal much about the 49ers' draft plans on Tuesday at the NFL Scouting Combine, but he may have let one secret slip.

He was asked about the importance of the tight end position, and Lynch answered in an interesting, telling way: "Green Bay did a great job last year of identifying young guys and playing with them and it added a lot to who they were as a team, as an offense," Lynch said. "So I think it can really make your team better when you find, and it's not just one anymore, you need a couple. It's a real critical position."

Sounds like the 49ers are in the market for a second tight end.

As Lynch noted, the Packers drafted two tight ends last year -- Luke Musgrave in Round 2 and Tucker Kraft in Round 3 -- and both players made an instant impact as rookies.

Meanwhile, the 49ers drafted Cam Latu at the end of Round 3, because they need a second tight end, as Lynch said. George Kittle will turn 31 next season -- he needs a lighter workload during the regular season. But Latu was dreadful in training camp, and he spent his entire rookie season on the Injured Reserve List. He did nothing to indicate he'll make an impact this year or ever, and once again Kittle played 90 percent of the offensive snaps. Not ideal.

Which means the 49ers could draft another tight end this year, perhaps in Round 3 again. That's what they did when they drafted running back Trey Sermon in Round 3 and he flopped. The very next year, the 49ers drafted running back Ty Davis-Price in Round 3 to correct their mistake.

Of course, Davis-Price was a giant flop as well, but that's beside the point. The 49ers kept throwing resources at the position until they eventually landed Christian McCaffrey.

Expect the 49ers to throw more resources at the tight end position this offseason. They might even sign one in a few weeks.

Stay tuned.


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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.