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49ers GM John Lynch Says Trent Williams Will Play Football in 2025

Good to hear.
Grant Cohn|
Oct 6, 2024; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers offensive tackle Trent Williams (71) warms up before the game against the Arizona Cardinals at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images
Oct 6, 2024; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers offensive tackle Trent Williams (71) warms up before the game against the Arizona Cardinals at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images | Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images

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San Francisco 49ers

INDIANAPOLIS -- The 49ers need to know Trent Williams status for 2025.

He's signed through 2026, but he missed seven games last season with a bruised ankle and will turn 37 this summer. If he decides to retire, no one would blame him or be surprised.

That's why I asked 49ers general manager if he's certain that Williams will play football this year.

"Trent is playing," Lynch announced. "He's ready. I think he's really motivated to come back. That's rarified air that Trent lives in, and when you're a player who has experienced playing at those heights, you don't want to play unless you're playing at that level. I think that's where Trent is at. I think we're going to see a real motivated Trent Williams come back and have a great year, and that's a good thing for us."

Does Lynch mean that Williams didn't want to play on a bruised ankle last season because it would have hurt his performance? If so, that's concerning.

Why did keep repeating that Williams will be motivated? Was he not motivated last season? Will he be motivated if the 49ers have another rough season? Will he play through injury for the team at this point in his career or will he protect himself and his advanced statistics?

The 49ers can't know the answers to these questions. So even if Williams returns, they have to prepare for life without him to begin at any moment.

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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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