The 49ers Sign Brandon Parker

Parker is 28, and he has missed all but five games the past two seasons due to injuries.
The 49ers Sign Brandon Parker
The 49ers Sign Brandon Parker /
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Finally, they add an offensive player.

The 49ers just signed backup offensive tackle Brandon Parker to a one-year deal, the team announced on Monday. Theoretically, he replaced Matt Pryor, who was the 49ers backup right tackle last season.

Parker is the first offensive player the 49ers have added to their offense this offseason. And he might not make the team.

Parker is 28, and he has missed all but five games the past two seasons due to injuries. He originally was a the Raiders third-round pick in 2018 back when Jon Gruden was running their team. And Gruden was the coach who gave Kyle Shanahan his start in the NFL. So that's probably why Shanahan likes Parker -- because Gruden does, and those two see things similarly.

Still, it seems to me the 49ers are merely creating the illusion that they've addressed the right tackle position.

First, they gave Colton McKivitz a one-year extension through 2025, which isn't much of an extension at all. The 49ers are not heavily invested in him. Then they signed Parker, who's body might be breaking down.

Coming into the offseason, every analyst agreed that the 49ers' No. 1 need was offensive tackle and that they most likely would draft one in Round 1. Now, analysts aren't sure which position the 49ers will target with the first pick, which is exactly what the 49ers want.

Don't be surprised if the 49ers draft an offensive tackle with their first pick, because there are at least seven offensive tackles in this draft who are better than McKivitz and Parker.


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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.