Will the 49ers Cut Cameron Latu?

Or do the 49ers suddenly believe in Latu after shutting him down last season?

Grant Cohn | Apr 9, 2024

Aug 25, 2023; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers tight end Cameron Latu (81) before / Sergio Estrada-USA TODAY Sports

Cameron Latu might never play a down for the 49ers.

They drafted him in Round 3 last year -- at least a couple rounds higher than most draft experts expected -- and he was truly awful in training camp. He was so bad, he would have gotten released before the season started had he not injured his knee and spent his entire rookie year on the Injured Reserve list. A loophole kept him on the team.

This year, Latu actually has to make the 53-man roster to stick around. And he has a shot. The 49ers let two veteran tight ends leave in free agency -- Charlie Woerner and Ross Dwelley -- and signed only Eric Saubert to replace them. Saubert is a journeyman who's almost 30. He probably won't make the 53-man roster. So Latu has an opportunity to not only make the team, but to be George Kittle's backup and the primary blocking tight end.

Do the 49ers suddenly believe in Latu after shutting down last season?

I highly doubt it.

The 49ers currently have no choice but to act like they believe in Latu, because they tried to sign Lions backup tight end Brock Wright, who was a restricted free agent, and the Lions matched the 49ers' offer sheet. So then the 49ers signed Plan B, which is Saubert, who probably won't make the team.

Had they acquired Plan A, which was Wright, they would have had their primary blocking tight end. So they're actively trying to replace Latu.

Expect the 49ers to draft another tight end in the next few weeks.

Published Apr 9, 2024

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.