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The 49ers Met with Tennessee DE James Pearce Jr. at the Combine

Pearce ran a phenomenal 4.47 40-yard dash and breezed through the position drills. He's so fluid and athletic, he might be able to play tight end if he wanted to.
Grant Cohn|
Tennessee defensive lineman James Pearce Jr. (27) during Tennessee's game against Chattanooga in Neyland Stadium in Knoxville on Saturday, Aug. 31, 2024.
Tennessee defensive lineman James Pearce Jr. (27) during Tennessee's game against Chattanooga in Neyland Stadium in Knoxville on Saturday, Aug. 31, 2024. | Brianna Paciorka/News Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK

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San Francisco 49ers

The 49ers seem to have their eyes on the best edge rushers in this year's draft.

Tennessee defensive end James Pearce Jr. confirmed to On SI that he had a formal meeting with the 49ers this week at the NFL Scouting Combine.

"Yes, I've met with the 49ers, and I'm 1,000 percent confident playing with my hand in the dirt," Pearce Jr. said.

Pearce Jr. is built more like an outside linebacker than a defensive end considering he's 245 lbs. and he has short arms. But he played defensive end in college, he was good against the run and outstanding against the pass. In fact, he was arguably the best pass rusher in college football the past two seasons.

At the Combine on Thursday, Pearce ran a phenomenal 4.47 40-yard dash and breezed through the position drills. He's so fluid and athletic, he might be able to play tight end if he wanted to.

It's unclear what kind of edge rusher the 49ers are looking for this year. Do they want someone big and stout who can set the edges on first and second down and then move inside and collapse the pocket on third down, or do they want a pure speed rusher who might not help the run defense much?

For what it's worth, 49ers defensive coordinator Robert Saleh spent a top-15 pick on Will McDonald two years ago when Saleh was the Jets head coach, and Johnson is smaller than Pearce.

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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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