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Free Agent Safety Juan Thornhill is Visiting the 49ers Today

The 49ers might take a flier on another veteran defensive back.
Grant Cohn|
Dec 28, 2023; Cleveland, Ohio, USA; Cleveland Browns safety Juan Thornhill (1) celebrates after the Browns beat the New York Jets at Cleveland Browns Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Ken Blaze-Imagn Images
Dec 28, 2023; Cleveland, Ohio, USA; Cleveland Browns safety Juan Thornhill (1) celebrates after the Browns beat the New York Jets at Cleveland Browns Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Ken Blaze-Imagn Images | Ken Blaze-Imagn Images

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San Francisco 49ers

The 49ers might take a flier on another veteran defensive back.

Juan Thornhill is flying to Santa Clara to visit with the 49ers today according to Jordan Schultz. Thornhill is 29 and has started 74 of his 87 career games, so he has experience.

Thornhill is a solid player who used to be an excellent one. That was before he tore his ACL in 2019 when he was on the Chiefs. Since then, he has lost a step, but he's not bad. The past two seasons, he missed 12 games for the Browns while dealing with calf issues. Now, he's on the market,

When Thornhill entered the draft in 2019, he was incredibly athletic. He ran a 4.42. He probably doesn't run that fast or move that well anymore. Still, if the 49ers were to sign him, he would be their starting free safety.

It's clear the 49ers are searching for a safety who's similar to a young Thornhill, i.e. a converted cornerback who has tons of range and is a good tackler. Not necessarily a playmaker, but a defensive back who's versatile enough to cover premium tight ends man to man. That's why they signed Jason Pinnock earlier this week. He fits that description.

If the 49ers ultimately do not draft Thornhill, expect them to draft a safety who's like him. Unfortunately for the 49ers, they have so many needs in the trenches, they might be forced to pass on safeties in the draft and take a flier on Thornhill.

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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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