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The 49ers Promote Tight End Brayden Willis to the Active Roster

This is intriguing.

Grant Cohn

Aug 19, 2023; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers tight end Brayden Willis (9) runs with the ball during the third quarter against the Denver Broncos at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Stan Szeto-Imagn Images
Aug 19, 2023; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers tight end Brayden Willis (9) runs with the ball during the third quarter against the Denver Broncos at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Stan Szeto-Imagn Images / Stan Szeto-Imagn Images
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This is intriguing.

The 49ers called up tight end Brayden Willis from the practice squad to the active roster on Wednesday. The 49ers now have four tight ends on their active roster. Why so many?

It's possible the 49ers are concerned about George Kittle on a short week. He's currently is playing through a broken rib which caused him to drop at least one pass this past Sunday against the Cardinals. He also got tossed onto his back trying to block when Jordan Mason fumbled and the Cardinals recovered.

It's also possible the 49ers intend to run the ball much more in this game than they did against the Cardinals. In that game, Kyle Shanahan called just 22 handoffs as opposed to 41 drop backs. After the game, multiple players including Brock Purdy and Nick Bosa said the team needs to get back to playing complementary football, which means running the football. And on a short week, running the football is a smart strategy.

The 49ers don't have time to install a complex, intricate game plan. So expect them to hand off repeatedly to Jordan Mason, who carried the ball just 14 times on Sunday. Which means head coach Kyle Shanahan won't have time to overthink things, and that could be exactly what the 49ers need. Shanahan has not coached well the first five games of the season and his team has lost its identity.

Perhaps they find it tonight in Seattle with a dominant rushing performance.

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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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