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What Cameron Latu Needs to Show During OTAs

Latu is a former linebacker who switched to tight end at Alabama, a school that runs the ball and plays a physical style of football, so he should be a good blocker for the 49ers if he ever gets on the field.

Grant Cohn

Jul 27, 2023; Santa Clara, CA, USA; San Francisco 49ers tight end Cameron Latu (81) runs with the
Jul 27, 2023; Santa Clara, CA, USA; San Francisco 49ers tight end Cameron Latu (81) runs with the / Robert Edwards-USA TODAY Sports
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The 49ers nearly cut Cameron Latu last year.

They drafted him in Round 3 of the 2023 NFL Draft, but he was so bad during training camp and preseason that he essentially played his way off the roster. But he injured his meniscus during the 49ers' final preseason game which allowed them to place Latu on season-ending Injured Reserve. Now he has a second shot to prove himself. and he probably won't get a third one. What does he need to do specifically?

Latu is a former linebacker who switched to tight end at Alabama, a school that runs the ball and plays a physical style of football, so he should be a good blocker for the 49ers if he ever gets on the field. But to play, he'll have to show that he also can catch the ball, because he's a tight end, not an offensive lineman. And last offseason, catching the ball was a big issue for Latu.

Latu isn't exactly the fastest tight end -- he runs a 4.78, which is relatively slow. So getting open isn't easy for him. He doesn't have the quickness and explosion to beat man-to-man coverage, which means Kyle Shanahan will have to scheme him open. And Shanahan can do that. But if Latu can't catch the ball, what's the point?

Last offseason, Latu dropped more passes than he caught. He was a drop waiting to happen. At times it seemed like he was fighting the ball with his hands rather than catching it. Maybe he simply was pressing because he was a rookie. Whatever the case, he needs to show he can catch the freaking ball.

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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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