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Will 49ers Rookie Alfred Collins Hold Out of Training Camp?

The 49ers have to decide what's more important to them -- setting a financial precedent that will affect them with future second-round picks, or winning Week 1.
Grant Cohn|
May 9, 2025; Santa Clara, CA, USA; San Francisco 49ers second-round draft pick Alfred Collins (99) watches his teammates work out during the teamís rookie minicamp. Mandatory Credit: D. Ross Cameron-Imagn Images
May 9, 2025; Santa Clara, CA, USA; San Francisco 49ers second-round draft pick Alfred Collins (99) watches his teammates work out during the teamís rookie minicamp. Mandatory Credit: D. Ross Cameron-Imagn Images | D. Ross Cameron-Imagn Images

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San Francisco 49ers

The 49ers' rookies will report to training camp on Tuesday, and defensive tackle Alfred Collins might not show up.

That's because Collins was a second-round pick this year, and only two second-round picks around the league have signed their contracts so far, and those deals were fully guaranteed. So now, every other second-rounder wants a fully guaranteed deal, too. Which means this is a league-wide issue, not just a 49ers' issue.

Unfortunately for the 49ers, they're counting on Collins to start Week 1. That's why they released Javon Hargrave and Maliek Collins this offseason. They want their rookies to play early and develop as quickly as possible.

When Collins sat out of rookie minicamp and OTAs, the 49ers said he had a lingering calf injury that he reaggravated at his Pro Day. They didn't say anything about his contract dispute. And for the first few weeks, Collins at least showed up to practice and watched his teammates work.

But for the last few weeks of the offseason training program, Collins wasn't there. His jersey was hanging on the wall near the weight-lifting facility.

The 49ers need Collins on the field so that defensive line coach Kris Kocurek can teach him the techniques necessary to play in the Wide 9 front. Collins never has played in an attacking-style defense before -- he played in a read-and-react defense. Now, the 49ers want him to burst upfield as quickly as possible. This will take time for him to learn. Every practice his misses will set him back. And he already has missed quite a few.

The 49ers have to decide what's more important to them -- setting a financial precedent that will affect them with future second-round picks, or winning Week 1.

The choice is theirs.

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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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