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Why Jason Pinnock has been the 49ers' Best Signing of the Offseason

Don't be surprised if Pinnock starts at free safety for the 49ers next season and plays well.
Grant Cohn|
September 21, 2023; Santa Clara, California, USA; New York Giants safety Jason Pinnock (27) before the game against the San Francisco 49ers at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-Imagn Images
September 21, 2023; Santa Clara, California, USA; New York Giants safety Jason Pinnock (27) before the game against the San Francisco 49ers at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-Imagn Images | Kyle Terada-Imagn Images

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San Francisco 49ers

For the most part, the 49ers' offseason has been extremely underwhelming.

They've purged the roster of expensive veterans they can't afford and replaced them with a bunch of cheap backups, most of whom are on one-year deals.

But there's one player the 49ers signed who has a good chance to start, and that's free safety Jason Pinnock.

The 49ers signed Pinnock to a modest one-year deal this week. They took a flier on him. But he's only 25, he's a converted cornerback who's very athletic and he was a starter the past two seasons on the Giants. In addition, he was drafted in Round 5 by the Jets when Robert Saleh was their head coach. Now, they're reunited.

Don't be surprised if Pinnock starts at free safety for the 49ers next season and plays well. For the first time in his career, he'll play for a good team and solid organization. And he'll be in a backfield with Deommodore Lenoir, Renardo Green and Malik Mustapha. Those players will elevate Pinnock and help him reach his full potential for the first time.

Pinnock is a good tackler who has the speed to play centerfield as a single-high safety. In addition, he has the movement skills to cover tight ends. Which means he can play free safety on first and second downs and strong safety on third downs. That's how the 49ers used Jimmie Ward when Saleh was the defensive coordinator the first time.

Pinnock could fill that role.

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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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