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The Quarterback the 49ers Overlook the Most

There's a quarterback who has an even stronger arm than Zach Wilson, a quarterback no one is talking about.

Grant Cohn

Dear Kyle Shanahan,

Everyone's telling you who you should get to play quarterback, and you don't know whom to trust. Should you listen to the guy who tells you to trade eight draft picks for Houston Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson, or should you listen to the guy who tells you to trade up for the kid from BYU -- Zach Wilson?

Listen to me.

There's no need to trade away the entire team for Watson, no need to move up in the draft for an unproven quarterback from BYU. Because I found a quarterback who has an even stronger arm than Wilson, a quarterback no one is talking about.

This guy is only 23-years old, he was a five-start recruit coming out of high school and he's more mobile and has a stronger arm right now than Jimmy Garoppolo.

The best part about this guy? You don't have to trade up for him -- you don't even have to draft him.

Why?

Because he's on your team. His name is Josh Rosen. He's an exclusive rights free agent, meaning you can bring him back for peanuts and no team can take him from you.

Why trade up for Wilson when you already have Rosen? Rosen was the 10th pick in the 2018 draft. He got taken by one of the worst teams in the NFL -- the Cardinals. He still beat the 49ers not once but twice as a rookie. Then his head coach got fired and the Cardinals traded Rosen to the Dolphins, another awful team at the time.

Rosen started only three games before the Dolphins gave up on him. After the season, they fired their offensive coordinator and cut Rosen. Then Rosen signed onto the Buccaneers practice squad, and then he signed with the 49ers mid season. So he has learned four systems in three years.

Why has the league given up on Rosen but not, say, Sam Darnold?

Don't give up on Rosen, Kyle. He never has played on a good team -- not even in college. UCLA football stinks. You can surround him with playmakers and a quality system and turn him into a good quarterback. He has major talent. That's why he was a top-10 pick.

Compare his resume to Zach Wilson's. In 2017 -- Rosen's final season at UCLA -- he played Hawaii and completed 22 of 25 passes, threw for 329 passing yards, threw 5 TD passes, 0 interceptions and won the game. 

Zach Wilson played Hawaii in 2019, and he completed 24 of 40 passes, threw for 274 passing yards, threw 0 TD passes, 2 interceptions and lost the game.

How do we know Wilson will be better than Rosen?

We don't. 

How do we know Wilson won't get drafted by a terrible team and have to learn four systems in three years?

We don't.

For all we know, Wilson could be the next Rosen. Why trade for the next Rosen when you have the original Rosen?

Coach him up, Coach.

Here's what he can do:

Published
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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