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The 49ers Sign Defensive Tackle Jordan Elliott

Elliott, 26, is a former third-round pick who spent the first four seasons of his career with the Browns, where he recorded 5 sacks.

Grant Cohn

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Another defensive lineman.

The 49ers signed defensive tackle Jordan Elliott to a two-year, $10 million contract, according to The NFL Network. Elliott is the third defensive lineman the 49ers have added this offseason along with Leonard Floyd and Yatur Gross-Matos. Meanwhile, the 49ers haven't yet added any offensive players. Go figure.

Elliott, 26, is a former third-round pick who spent the first four seasons of his career with the Browns, where he recorded 5 sacks. So he's not a pass rusher. But the past two seasons, he was a starter. And last season, he played in the Wide 9, which means he fits the 49ers defensive scheme. That's why the 49ers signed him.

The 49ers certainly need defensive tackles after releasing Arik Armstead and letting Javon Kinlaw sign with the New York Jets, but I don't see Elliott as a replacement for Armstead. I see Elliott as a replacement for Kinlaw -- a backup defensive tackle who can start if necessary, but not someone who would play on passing downs. A rotational run defender only.

Armstead was a three-down defensive tackle who was a key part of the 49ers third-down pressure packages. Elliott can't replace Armstead in those situations. So expect the 49ers to draft a defensive tackle relatively high next month. 

In the meantime, their base defensive line most likely consists of Nick Bosa, Javon Hargrave, Jordan Elliott and Yatur Gross-Matos, while their nickel defensive line probably is made up of Bosa, Hargrave, Gross-Matos and Leonard Floyd.

Despite all these moves, it doesn't seem that the defensive line has improved.

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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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