Top 5 Camp Battles for the 49ers this Offseason

Will Jauan Jennings hold off his eventual replacement?
Jul 28, 2022; Santa Clara, CA, USA; San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Jauan Jennings (15) during
Jul 28, 2022; Santa Clara, CA, USA; San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Jauan Jennings (15) during / Stan Szeto-USA TODAY Sports
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OTAs start in roughly a week. Here are the top five 49ers camp battles to watch this offseason.

1. Maliek Collins vs. Jordan Elliott

Last season, Collins started for the Texans and Elliott started for the Browns. And while Collins is the better pass rusher and the more expensive player, Elliott is much better against the run, and run defense is the 49ers' biggest issue. So Elliott has a chance to win this competition and start, even if Collins ends up playing more snaps as a pass-rushing specialist.

2. Leonard Floyd vs. Yetur Gross-Matos

Floyd is a 31-year-old pass-rush specialist who played only 54 percent of the Bills defensive snaps last season. Gross-Matos is a run-defender who played three quarters of the Panthers defensive snaps when healthy. If the 49ers want to improve their run defense, then Gross-Matos could win this competition.

3. Isaac Yiadom vs. Renardo Green

YIadom played well as the third cornerback for the Saints last season. The previous five seasons of his career, he was a complete liability. If he reverts to his previous form, the 49ers will have no choice but to start their rookie second-round pick.

4. Jon Feliciano vs. Dominick Puni

Feliciano became the starting right guard by default last season after Spencer Burford struggled and then got injured, but I think the 49ers would prefer both of them to be backups -- that's why they traded up for a guard in Round 3. If Puni lives up to his draft stock, he should start.

5. Jauan Jennings vs. Ricky Pearsall

The 49ers drafted Pearsall in the first round, so they'll be under tremendous pressure to play him right away and his best position is in the slot, where Jauan Jennings lines up. And while Jennings played well in the postseason, he didn't do much in the regular season and he typically struggles during training camp. We'll see if he can hold off his eventual replacement.


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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.