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Why the 49ers Should Trade for Myles Garrett

Instead of missing on another top-20 pick, just trade it for a future Hall of Famer.

Grant Cohn

Feb 5, 2025; New Orleans, LA, USA; Cleveland Browns defensive end Myles Garrett on radio row at the Super Bowl LIX media center at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images
Feb 5, 2025; New Orleans, LA, USA; Cleveland Browns defensive end Myles Garrett on radio row at the Super Bowl LIX media center at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images / Kirby Lee-Imagn Images
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Option 1: Do nothing, let the Washington Commanders or the Detroit Lions trade for Myles Garrett and forget about contending for a Super Bowl any time soon.

Option 2: Trade for Myles Garrett.

What do you think the 49ers should do?

Garrett arguably is the best player in the NFL not named Patrick Mahomes and he just requested a trade this week. Apparently, eight years of playing for the Browns is enough. He says he wants to go to a contender. He's 29.

To get him, the 49ers probably would have to trade their first-round pick this year and maybe next year too, which seems expensive. Then they might have to give him a contract extension because his current deal doesn't have any guaranteed money left. And they also want to extend Brock Purdy's contract. And they're an old team that needs an infusion of youth in a major way.

But whoever the 49ers take with the 11th pick this year won't be nearly as good as Garrett. And let's face it, if the 49ers don't trade for Garrett, they probably will pick the wrong player in Round 1. That's their pattern. Since John Lynch and Kyle Shanahan joined the organization in 2017, here are the players they've drafted in the top 20: Solomon Thomas, Mike McGlinchey, Nick Bosa, Javon Kinlaw and Trey Lance. They get one of the five correct.

Instead of missing on another top-20 pick, just trade it for a future Hall of Famer.

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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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