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The 49ers Re-Sign Brandon Allen

Now the question is if the 49ers will draft a quarterback this year or go with just two at the position?

Grant Cohn

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Brock Purdy might have a new backup quarterback.

The 49ers just re-signed Brandon Allen, according to The NFL Network. Allen was the 49ers' third-string quarterback last season behind Sam Darnold, who also is a free agent. Now it seems Darnold is unlikely to return.

Remember, Darnold signed with the 49ers before Brock Purdy had elbow surgery last offseason. At the time, the 49ers and Darnold thought there was a distinct possibility that Purdy would miss the beginning of the season and that Darnold would get to start at least a few games. Of course, Purdy's recovery was shorter than expected and he started Week 1. But that's most likely why Darnold wanted the 49ers and why the 49ers wanted him.

Now Purdy is healthy, he's a Pro Bowler and the 49ers don't need to hedge their bets at quarterback anymore. All they need is a backup who wants to be a backup, and that's Allen, not Darnold.

So Allen gets to stay, and now the question is if the 49ers will draft a quarterback this year or go with just two at the position? I'm guessing they'll draft one in Round 6 or 7, someone they can develop potentially on the practice squad, someone who played a lot of college football and is mobile like Brock Purdy.

Someone such as BYU quarterback Kedon Slovis, whom the 49ers met with at the Shrine Game not long ago.

The 49ers still are in the market for a quarterback. Let's see who they get.

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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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