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Kyle Shanahan Explains Why the 49ers Released Mitch Wishnowsky

On Thursday, head coach Kyle Shanahan was asked why the 49ers felt the need to replace Wishnowsky.
Grant Cohn|
Dec 17, 2023; Glendale, Arizona, USA; San Francisco 49ers punter Mitch Wishnowsky (18) against the Arizona Cardinals at State Farm Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports
Dec 17, 2023; Glendale, Arizona, USA; San Francisco 49ers punter Mitch Wishnowsky (18) against the Arizona Cardinals at State Farm Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports | Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

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San Francisco 49ers

We knew the 49ers would overhaul their special teams this offseason. That was clear when they fired special teams coordinator Brian Schneider and hired Brant Boyer from the Jets to replace him.

We did not know that the 49ers would bring three more Jets special teamers with him including a 39-year-old long snapper (Jon Weeks) and a 39-year-old punter (Thomas Morstead).

The punter is particularly interesting. He replaces Mitch Wishnowsky, whom the 49ers released on Wednesday. Wishnowsky is 33 and was the 49ers' fourth-round pick in 2019. They even gave him a four-year extension in 2022.

On Thursday, head coach Kyle Shanahan was asked why the 49ers felt the need to replace Wishnowsky.

"I love Mitch," Shanahan said. "He's one of my favorite guys I've been around, especially from a special team standpoint and punter standpoint. He's such a football player in how he plays. The guys love him. But when you just look into contract situations, how last year went and things, the fact that Thomas Morstead became available, Brant being so familiar with him and having that relationship it ended up making it a decision that wasn't easy but we felt all confident it was best for our team.”

But what about Wishnowsky's back injury that kept him out of eight games last season? Did that factor into his release?

“He is healthy," Shanahan said. "So, he's going to go to a team and help a team out a lot. But those are things you’ve always got to predict. You don't know how those things go and you’ve got to take the risk-reward and something that to me wasn't a big risk or worth the risk until someone like Morstead becomes available. And that put us on where we needed to make a decision.”

It sounds like the 49ers replaced Wishnowsky with Morstead because Morstead is cheaper and knows the current special teams coordinator.

Whether Morstead actually is an upgrade remains to be seen.

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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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