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The 49ers will Release Maliek Collins if they Can't Trade him

The only remaining defensive tackles on the roster are Evan Anderson and Kalia Davis. Yikes.
Grant Cohn|
Oct 6, 2024; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers defensive lineman Maliek Collins (99) after the game against the Arizona Cardinals at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kelley L Cox-Imagn Images
Oct 6, 2024; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers defensive lineman Maliek Collins (99) after the game against the Arizona Cardinals at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kelley L Cox-Imagn Images | Kelley L Cox-Imagn Images

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San Francisco 49ers

The thinnest position on the 49ers defense just got even thinner.

The 49ers are trying to trade veteran defensive tackle Maliek Collins according to NBC Sports Bay Area's Matt Maiocco. And if they can't find a trade partner, they will release him according to ESPN's Adam Schefter.

Which means the 49ers probably will release him. Because why would anyone trade for a player who's going to get released?

Either way, Collins won't be on the 49ers next season. And neither will Javon Hargrave, the other Week 1 starting defensive tackle from 2024. The 49ers will release him with a post-June-1 designation.

So the only remaining defensive tackles on the roster are Evan Anderson and Kalia Davis. Yikes. The 49ers need to add two starters plus backups to the position this offseason.

It's possible they'll sign a veteran such as D.J. Jones whom they drafted back in 2017. He's an outstanding run defender who perfectly fits the 49ers' Wide 9 defensive front.

The 49ers will have to sign someone. They can't expect to find two Day 1 starting defensive tackles in the draft. It would make no sense to sign a defensive end such as Joey Bosa when Leonard Floyd is still on the roster and the cupboard is almost completely bare at defensive tackle.

Expect the 49ers also to spend their first-round pick on a defensive tackle. Lots of good ones will be available. The trick will be finding one who fits their scheme. Hargrave never was a good fit. Hopefully, the 49ers learned their lesson.

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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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