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49ers Sign Undrafted Free Agent Linebacker to Three-Year Deal

Stone Blanton was a two-sport athlete in college who played both football and baseball.
Grant Cohn|
Sep 7, 2024; Tempe, Arizona, USA; Mississippi State Bulldogs linebacker Stone Blanton (7) against the Arizona State Sun Devils at Mountain America Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images
Sep 7, 2024; Tempe, Arizona, USA; Mississippi State Bulldogs linebacker Stone Blanton (7) against the Arizona State Sun Devils at Mountain America Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images | Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

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San Francisco 49ers

When the 49ers held their rookie minicamp on Friday, one of their undrafted free agents wasn't there.

That UDFA was linebacker Stone Blanton. Turns out he was getting married that day and he hadn't signed his contract yet. Now, he's officially married and signed to a three-year deal according to the 49ers.

Blanton was a two-sport athlete in college who played both football and baseball. He started his collegiate career at South Carolina before transferring to Mississippi State in 2024 where he led the nation with 95 assisted tackles. Which suggests he's usually around the action on defense even if he isn't always the first one to hit the ball carrier.

The 49ers have had success developing undrafted linebackers in the past. In 2019, they signed Azeez Al-Shaair as an undrafted free agent. Now, he's the starting middle linebacker for the Houston Texans.

The 49ers desperately need a linebacker to replace Dre Greenlaw who signed a three-year deal with the Denver Broncos this offseason. That's why they drafted linebacker Nick Martin in Round 3. He most likely will compete with Dee Winters to start next to Fred Warner.

But Blanton will be a dark horse in the competition as well. He's not as fast as Martin, but he's bigger than him and might be more durable. Martin will have to prove that his smaller frame can hold up in the NFL.

Keep an eye on Blanton in the preseason. He should get lots of playing time with the 49ers' third-string defense.

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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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