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Will the 49ers Sign Free Agent Cornerback Asante Samuel Jr.?

This should be a no-brainer.
Grant Cohn|
Dec 23, 2023; Inglewood, California, USA; Los Angeles Chargers cornerback Asante Samuel Jr. (26) enters the field before the game against the Buffalo Bills at SoFi Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images
Dec 23, 2023; Inglewood, California, USA; Los Angeles Chargers cornerback Asante Samuel Jr. (26) enters the field before the game against the Buffalo Bills at SoFi Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

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San Francisco 49ers

This should be a no-brainer.

The 49ers need a cornerback -- that's why they tried to sign Damon Arnette last week. Fortunately for the 49ers, there are cornerbacks much better than Arnette who are still available. Cornerbacks such as Asante Samuel Jr.

Samuel is just 25. The Chargers drafted him in the second round of the 2021 NFL Draft. The 49ers actually could have taken him, but they took Aaron Banks instead. Now, Banks is on the Packers, and the 49ers have a chance to sign one of the best cornerbacks remaining on the free agent market, according to ESPN.

"Samuel has a playmaking mentality at cornerback, with the foot quickness and sudden closing speed to break on the ball," writes ESPN's Matt Bowen. "A shoulder injury limited Samuel to four games last season, but he has six interceptions and 26 pass breakups in his four years with the Chargers."

Signing Samuel would allow the 49ers to move Deommodore Lenoir back to the slot where he's at his best. In addition, Samuel would allow rookie third-round pick Upton Stout to develop slowly. Because if the 49ers don't sign Samuel, then Stout will have to play right away. And if he's not ready, the 49ers' No. 3 cornerback will be Tre Brown, who gave up a quarterback rating of 124 on the Seahawks last season. Not great.

The 49ers have $46 million in cap space -- more than enough to sign Samuel. They just need their owners to greenlight the signing.

Don't be cheap.

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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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