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Samson Ebukam Agrees to Sign with the Colts

The most likely player to replace Ebukam is Drake Jackson, because he's a defensive end and the 49ers drafted him in Round 2 last year.
Grant Cohn|
Samson Ebukam Agrees to Sign with the Colts
Samson Ebukam Agrees to Sign with the Colts

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San Francisco 49ers

The 49ers just lost one of their best run defenders.

Samson Ebukam has agreed to sign a three-year, $27 million contract with the Indianapolis Colts, according to reports. The 49ers were expected to let Ebukam leave in free agency, because they can't afford to re-sign all their free agents, and he got a nice pay day. Still, the 49ers will have to find a way to replace him in their starting lineup.

The 49ers originally signed Ebukam in 2021 to replace Dee Ford as the edge rusher opposite Nick Bosa, but Ebukam never became a pass-rushing threat for the 49ers -- he recorded just 9.5 sacks in two seasons. That's a big reason why the 49ers let him leave in free agency.

But Ebukam is a fabulous edge-setter in the run defense -- even better than Nick Bosa, according to former 49ers defensive coordinator DeMeco Ryans. Ebukam also is excellent at containing quarterbacks in the pocket -- also better than Bosa at this one thing.

The most likely player to replace Ebukam is Drake Jackson, because he's a defensive end and the 49ers drafted him in Round 2 last year. But Jackson and Ebukam are opposites. Jackson's biggest weakness is run defense -- he does not set a strong edge. That's why he played mostly on passing downs when he was on the field last season.

And when Jackson did rush the quarterback, he mostly rushed from the interior as a defensive tackle going against guards. He hasn't shown that he can win consistently as a defensive end going against offensive tackles.

It's possible the 49ers will sign a veteran defensive end such as Yannick Ngajoue, or perhaps they'll draft one in a few weeks. Stay tuned.

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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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