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49ers Predicted to Sign Chiefs Linebacker Nick Bolton in Free Agency

The 49ers could decide to re-sign Dre Greenlaw this offseason, or they could choose to sign someone even better.
Grant Cohn|
Jan 18, 2025; Kansas City, Missouri, USA; Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Nick Bolton (32) takes the field prior to a 2025 AFC divisional round game against the Houston Texans at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jay Biggerstaff-Imagn Images
Jan 18, 2025; Kansas City, Missouri, USA; Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Nick Bolton (32) takes the field prior to a 2025 AFC divisional round game against the Houston Texans at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jay Biggerstaff-Imagn Images | Jay Biggerstaff-Imagn Images

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San Francisco 49ers

The 49ers could decide to re-sign Dre Greenlaw this offseason, or they could choose to sign someone even better.

No disrespect to Greenlaw. He's had a terrific career with the 49ers. But he'll be 28 this year and he's coming off a season in which he played just 34 snaps after tearing his Achilles in the Super Bowl. It's unclear how durable he will be in the future.

Instead of signing Greenlaw and hoping he stays healthy, Pro Football Network predicts the 49ers will sign Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Nick Bolton.

"It is intriguing to put a player like Nick Bolton next to Fred Warner," writes Pro Football Network analyst Ben Rolfe. "Bolton was the centerpiece of the Chiefs’ offense and has the chance to be Warner’s long-term partner in the center of the 49ers defense. We have seen that the 49ers place a high importance on the position and Bolton could be the next evolution of that.

"Bolton has three 100-tackle seasons in his first four years and has also proven a nuisance around the quarterback. He is a versatile piece that feels like a luxury for the 49ers, but he can get after the passer or drop into coverage. The thought of Warner and Bolton together in a defense will be terrifying for opposing offenses."

Bolton would be an outstanding signing for the 49ers, who has spent big money on linebackers in the past (see: Kwon Alexander). But they've never spent a ton on two linebackers at once, and Fred Warner is expensive.

I think the 49ers are more likely to draft a linebacker.

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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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