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49ers Expected to Hire Former Jaguars Assistant GM Ethan Waugh

Here comes a familiar face.
Grant Cohn|
Jacksonville Jaguars assistant general manager Ethan Waugh talks with the media before the start of Friday's rookie minicamp session. The Jacksonville Jaguars held their first day of rookie minicamp inside the covered field at the Jaguars performance facility in Jacksonville, Florida Friday, May 10, 2024.
Jacksonville Jaguars assistant general manager Ethan Waugh talks with the media before the start of Friday's rookie minicamp session. The Jacksonville Jaguars held their first day of rookie minicamp inside the covered field at the Jaguars performance facility in Jacksonville, Florida Friday, May 10, 2024. | Bob Self/Florida Times-Union / USA TODAY NETWORK

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San Francisco 49ers

Here comes a familiar face.

The 49ers are expected to hire former Jacksonville Jaguars assistant general manager Ethan Waugh according to Aaron Wilson. It's unclear what his official title will be.

Waugh was the Jaguars assistant general manager from 2023 to 2024 under former 49ers general manager Trent Baalke. Before Waugh joined the Jaguars, he worked for the 49ers from 2004 to 2022 where he worked his way from a personnel assistant until he eventually became the vice president of player personnel for two seasons under current general manager John Lynch.

Before Waugh became the 49ers' vice president of president of player personnel, Adam Peters held that position for four seasons. Then, the 49ers promoted him to assistant general manager in 2021. Now, he's the Washington Commanders general manager.

Waugh never has been a general manager in his career, but he has been the second in command. So it will be interesting to see how the 49ers use him. Will he be second in command to Lynch? Will current directors of player personnel Tariq Ahmad and R.J. Gillen report to Waugh from now on?

Remember, Waugh worked for the 49ers for 19 years, so the owners know him well. If they're bringing him back to the organization, perhaps they're doing an old friend a favor. More likely, they hold him in high esteem and think he can improve their front office.

For the next few seasons, the 49ers will have to draft extremely well because they'll be paying tons of money to eight players -- Brandon Aiyuk, Nick Bosa, Fred Warner, Deommodore Lenoir, Trent Williams, George Kittle, Christian McCaffrey and Brock Purdy.

Maybe that's why the 49ers are bringing back Waugh.

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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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