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49ers to Sign Ziggy Ansah or Dion Jordan?

The 49ers clearly aren’t done making moves.
Grant Cohn|

The 49ers clearly aren’t done making moves.

On Monday, they signed former Pro Bowl tight end Jordan Reed to a one-year deal. And on Tuesday, they worked out free agent former Pro Bowl defensive end Ziggy Ansah, according to the NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport.

In addition, the 49ers met with free agent edge rusher Dion Jordan, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter.

The 49ers’ interest in Ansah and Jordan makes sense, because the Niners need another edge rusher. They have Nick Bosa and Dee Ford, but Ford has an arthritic knee and played only 226 snaps last season, or 22 percent of the 49ers total defensive snaps. Not nearly enough

When Ford played, the defense was close to unstoppable. But when he didn’t play, it was still good, but it showed more vulnerabilities.

Ford is crucial, because he’s the only speed rusher on the 49ers. The other defensive linemen are power rushers. Ford gets the quarterback first and, even if Ford misses, he forces the quarterback to move and hold the ball long enough for someone else to sack him.

Ansah and Jordan are speed rushers, too.

Ansah, 31, was the fifth pick in the 2013 draft by the Lions, and was developed by current 49ers defensive line coach Kris Kocurek. So, of course the 49ers like Ansah. He used to be a force -- he recorded 14.5 sacks in 2015 and 12 sacks in 2017. But the past two seasons, he has recorded just 6.5 sacks total because neck and shoulder injuries have rendered him ineffective.

Jordan, 30, was the third pick in the 2013 draft -- he went two spots ahead of Ansah. But Jordan was a bust -- he has recorded just 10.5 sacks in his entire career. Plus, the NFL suspended him the entire 2015 season for using performance-enhancing drugs, and he subsequently sat out the 2016 season as well.

If Ansah and Joran pass their physicals, the 49ers likely will offer each a veteran’s minimum contract with zero guaranteed dollars. And one of the two probably will accept the meager offer. And the 49ers probably hope the one who accepts is Ansah, not Jordan.

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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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