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49ers Sign Defensive End Arden Key

Key spent the first three seasons of his career with the Raiders and was a colossal disappointment.
Grant Cohn|
49ers Sign Defensive End Arden Key
49ers Sign Defensive End Arden Key

The 49ers just made their second smart move of the day.

First they signed running back Wayne Gallman to a one-year deal. Now, they’ve signed defensive end Arden Key to a one-year deal as well, according to The NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport.

Key spent the first three seasons of his career with the Raiders and was a colossal disappointment. In three years, he recorded only three sacks. Last season, he recorded a whopping zero sacks. No wonder the Raiders didn’t re-sign him. He’s no lock to make the 49ers final roster.

But Key is exactly the kind of underachieving talent that 49ers defensive line coach Kris Kocurek has had success with. Last season, Kocurek turned former busts Dion Jordan and Jordan Willis into productive contributors, plus he turned journeyman Kerry Hyder into an impact player.

Key has just as much talent as Hyder, if not more. Key recorded 11 sacks as a sophomore at LSU in 2016. He was a third-round pick in 2018, and he has recorded 26 quarterback hits in three NFL seasons, which is good. He has potential. If Kocurek can get him to fire off the snap quicker, those quarterback hits could become sacks.

Key joins a rotation of defensive ends that includes Nick Bosa, Arik Armstead, Dee Ford (if he ever plays again) Samson Ebukam, Jordan Willis and Alex Barrett. That’s a terrific group of edge rushers when healthy. Meaning the 49ers can spend a draft pick on an edge rusher if they’d like, but they don’t have to anymore.

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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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