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REPORT: The 49ers Waive Drake Jackson with Failed Physical

The Drake Jackson Era officially is over in Santa Clara.
Grant Cohn|
Oct 9, 2022; Charlotte, North Carolina, USA; San Francisco 49ers defensive end Drake Jackson (95) during the first quarter against the Carolina Panthers at Bank of America Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jim Dedmon-Imagn Images
Oct 9, 2022; Charlotte, North Carolina, USA; San Francisco 49ers defensive end Drake Jackson (95) during the first quarter against the Carolina Panthers at Bank of America Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jim Dedmon-Imagn Images | Jim Dedmon-Imagn Images

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San Francisco 49ers

The Drake Jackson Era officially is over in Santa Clara. And for all intents and purposes, it never really started in the first place.

On Friday, the 49ers announced that they have waived defensive end Drake Jackson with a failed physical. That means he's free to sign with another team once he clears waivers and shows that he's fully recovered from a torn patellar tendon he suffered in 2023. He hasn't played let alone practice since he suffered that injury.

So Jackson's career might be over. The 49ers clearly think he's damaged good. Otherwise, they would have kept him for the final season of his rookie contract.

Don't forget, the 49ers picked Jackson in Round 2 of the 2022 NFL Draft. He was their top pick that year because they traded their first-rounder to the Miami Dolphins for the right to draft Trey Lance.

Jackson was supposed to be the long-term bookend opposite Nick Bosa. But in 23 career games, Jackson made exactly zero starts and recorded just six sacks. And three of those sacks came in one game against the Pittsburgh Steelers. So even when Jackson was healthy, he was a massive disappointment.

To make matters worse for the 49ers, four picks after they took Jackson, the Broncos took edge rusher Nik Bonitto who had 13.5 sacks last season. Unfortunately, they picked the wrong player.

This week, Jackson posted on social media that he's ready to "wreck havoc" this season. Perhaps he'll do well on a new team with a different training staff.

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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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