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Why the 49ers Should Sign Calais Campbell

The 49ers tried to trade for Campbell last year at the trade deadline

Grant Cohn

Oct 27, 2024; Miami Gardens, Florida, USA; Miami Dolphins defensive tackle Calais Campbell (93) enters the field before the game against the Arizona Cardinals at Hard Rock Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Sam Navarro-Imagn Images
Oct 27, 2024; Miami Gardens, Florida, USA; Miami Dolphins defensive tackle Calais Campbell (93) enters the field before the game against the Arizona Cardinals at Hard Rock Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Sam Navarro-Imagn Images / Sam Navarro-Imagn Images
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The 49ers need to get younger, but they also need to get better.

They're a six-win team that just lost nine quality starters and replaced none of them. Signing at least one starter would be smart if the 49ers hope to contend for a playoff spot next season.

That's why they should sign free-agent defensive tackle Calais Campbell.

Sure, Campbell will be 39 next season, which means he's older than Trent Williams. But Campbell also should be relatively cheap considering how good he still is.

Despite Campbell's age, he played all 17 games each of the past two seasons and was Pro Football Focus' sixth-highest-graded defensive tackle in 2025 -- one spot higher than DeForest Buckner.

Campbell is the best defensive tackle remaining on the free agent market. If the 49ers don't sign him or someone else to play this position, they'll have to start two rookie defensive tackles next season, or they'll have to start Jordan Elliott. And no good team starts Jordan Elliott. No offense.

According to Campbell's brother, the 49ers tried to trade for Campbell last year at the trade deadline. They even offered the Miami Dolphins a fourth-round pick for him, and Miami ultimately decided to keep him and make a playoff push, which fell short.

Now, the 49ers simply can sign him as a free agent.

If the 49ers are serious about contending this season, they'll sign Campbell or someone of his caliber. If they're punting 2025 to contend in 2026, they'll stand pat.

Let's see what they do.

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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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