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49ers Sign Safety Quindell Johnson to a Reserve/Future Contract

The 49ers just made an intriguing move.
Grant Cohn|
Jul 26, 2023; Irvine, CA, USA; Los Angeles Rams safety Quindell Johnson (39) during training camp at UC Irvine. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images
Jul 26, 2023; Irvine, CA, USA; Los Angeles Rams safety Quindell Johnson (39) during training camp at UC Irvine. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

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San Francisco 49ers

The 49ers just made an intriguing move.

They signed safety Quindell Johnson off the Los Angeles Rams practice squad to a Reserve/Future contract. That means he doesn't count toward the 49ers' 53-man roster yet but he will when the new league year begins on March 12.

The Rams originally signed Johnson as an undrafted free agent in 2023 but waived him just before the season started. Then the Chicago Bears claimed him off waivers, and he appeared in 9 games as a rookie, intercepted one pass and played 106 snaps on special teams.

This season, the Bears waived Johnson after training camp and he went back to the Rams where he spent the season on their practice squad. Now he has a futures contract with the 49ers.

Why did the 49ers sign him? They could be bracing for the departure of Talanoa Hufanga in free agency. He's a former All Pro who could garner significant interest on the open market and the 49ers may not have the budget to bring him back on a multi-year deal if they give Brock Purdy an extension that makes him one of the highest-paid players in the NFL.

It's also possible the 49ers see Johnson as more of a special-teams contributor than a safety. Keep in mind, the 49ers' special teams were truly dreadful this season and the 49ers need to improve them this offseason. Maybe signing Johnson is the first of many moves aimed at improving the 49ers' biggest weakness.

Or maybe he's just a camp body.

We'll find out soon enough.

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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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