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The 49ers Could Sign Joey Bosa Now that the Chargers have Released him

The 49ers need a defensive end opposite Nick Bosa and his brother just became available.
Grant Cohn|
Jan 30, 2025; Orlando, FL, USA; NFC defensive end Nick Bosa of the San Francisco 49ers (left) with brother and AFC linebacker Joey Bosa during the Pro Bowl Skills Challenge at Nicholson Fieldhouse. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images
Jan 30, 2025; Orlando, FL, USA; NFC defensive end Nick Bosa of the San Francisco 49ers (left) with brother and AFC linebacker Joey Bosa during the Pro Bowl Skills Challenge at Nicholson Fieldhouse. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

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San Francisco 49ers

The 49ers need a defensive end opposite Nick Bosa and his brother just became available.

Joey Bosa was released by the Los Angeles Chargers on Wednesday night and the 49ers are a potential landing spot for him according to The NFL Network's Ian Rapoport. The Bosa brothers often have expressed a desire to play together in the NFL at some point in their careers. Now, they have that chance if the 49ers are interested.

Joey Bosa will be 30 in July. He used to be a perennial Pro Bowler, but he hasn't been a dominant player since 2021. In fact, he has missed a whopping 23 of 51 games the past three seasons. That means he missed 45 percent of the game.

If Bosa were willing to sign a cheap one-year deal for roughly the veteran minimum, sure, sign him up. Let him play football with his superior younger brother for one year. Otherwise, no, do not sign him. He's not good or dependable anymore.

Instead of signing Joey Bosa when he's well past his prime, the 49ers should consider trading Nick Bosa. He's still good but has had two down seasons in a row and he's extremely expensive. If they trade him, they'd get a massive contract off the books and might get two first-round picks in return.

Trading Nick Bosa would allow the 49ers to retool in 2025 and return to contention in 2026 when nearly $100 million in dead cap space would be off the books.

Something to think about.

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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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