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The 49ers Need to Use Jacob Cowing Against the Los Angeles Rams

The 49ers offense will look so much different without Christian McCaffrey and Deebo Samuel.

Grant Cohn

Aug 23, 2024; Paradise, Nevada, USA; San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Jacob Cowing (83) makes a touchdown catch against Las Vegas Raiders cornerback Rayshad Williams (36) during the third quarter at Allegiant Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Stephen R. Sylvanie-Imagn Images
Aug 23, 2024; Paradise, Nevada, USA; San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Jacob Cowing (83) makes a touchdown catch against Las Vegas Raiders cornerback Rayshad Williams (36) during the third quarter at Allegiant Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Stephen R. Sylvanie-Imagn Images / Stephen R. Sylvanie-Imagn Images
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The 49ers offense will look so much different without Christian McCaffrey and Deebo Samuel.

Those two are the most explosive weapons on the team. The two players most likely to catch a pass behind the line of scrimmage and score a touchdown. The cheat codes.

Both of them are out with calf issues. And the 49ers still have plenty of talent remaining -- see George Kittle, Jauan Jennings, Brandon Aiyuk, Jordan Mason and Kyle Juszczyk. But that's a slow, methodical group. It needs some speed and explosion to make up for the loss of McCaffrey and Samuel.

Enter rookie wide receiver Jacob Cowing.

Cowing ran a 4.38 40-yard dash at the Combine in March, so he's the fastest receiver on the team. And in two preseason games, he caught 7 of 8 targets for 90 yards and a touchdown. In addition, he ran the ball once on a jet sweep for 19 yards. So he's a gadget player who can do a lot of the things Samuel does when he's healthy.

Plus he's in better shape right now than Brandon Aiyuk, who missed the entire offseason because he held out for a new contract. Through two games, Aiyuk has played just 73 percent of the 49ers offensive snaps -- that's all he can handle right now. Cowing can give the 49ers offense a spark while Aiyuk gradually improves.

Finally, teams don't know Cowing and how the 49ers might use him, so he can be their next secret weapon after Jordan Mason who currently is catching the league by surprise.

The 49ers almost never play rookies unless they absolutely have to, which means Cowing could remain on the bench. But he shouldn't. They need him now.

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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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