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Report: 49ers Sign Tony Jefferson

He played the first four seasons of his career with the Cardinals, where his defensive coordinator in 2015 and 2016 was James Bettcher, the current senior defensive advisor for the 49ers.
Grant Cohn|
Report: 49ers Sign Tony Jefferson
Report: 49ers Sign Tony Jefferson

The 49ers just got Jaquiski Tartt insurance.

They signed veteran strong safety Tony Jefferson, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter.

Jefferson will fill in for Tartt during the offseason, because Tartt is out until training camp with a turf toe injury he suffered last season.

To be clear: Jefferson is not here to compete with Tartt or take his job. He’s here to get the 49ers through offseason practices while Tartt rehabs.

Jefferson might not even make the team. He hasn’t played a game since he tore his ACL during Week 5 of 2019, and now he’s 29. So he’s yet another aging player with major injury issues on the 49ers roster.

But before Jefferson tore his ACL, he had missed just three games in six seasons. He played the first four seasons of his career with the Cardinals, where his defensive coordinator in 2015 and 2016 was James Bettcher, the current senior defensive advisor for the 49ers. So there’s a relationship between Jefferson and San Francisco’s coaching staff. 

In 2017, Jefferson signed with the Baltimore Ravens, where he started 35 games and earned more than $27 million. And he played well for the Ravens even though he never went to a Pro Bowl.

But Jefferson hasn’t played football in almost two years since tearing his ACL. It’s entirely possible he never will recover enough to regain the ability that made him a starting strong safety in the NFL.

Jefferson has the next three months to make an impression on the 49ers.

Published
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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