This is why everyone hates Grant Cohn:
(comment & "expert medical opinion" about DeAndre Smelter from a recent article his dad’s boss published)
Made a cut in the end zone during a positional drill, grimaced and started limping. Hard to know why. Either his surgically repaired knee bothers him, or he has new injuries.
Now here’s what actually happened courtesy of Matt Barrows:
A receiver who has not been prolific is DeAndre Smelter, a 2015 draft pick who sat out his rookie season while recovering from an ACL tear. Smelter does not appear to be going full speed and often requires maintenance from trainers – stretching, etc. – on the sideline. Coach Chip Kelly said the issue was not related to Smelter’s knee. “He has been just nagging a little bit, but I wouldn’t call it an injury,” he said.
Someone (?) defended Cohn recently and said “but I find Grant’s training camp reports more complete than other writers”— for a minute let’s assume this person isn’t related to Grant in some way. Cohn’s reports are full of unsupported opinions and desperate attempts to fuel divisions & imaginary controversies.
They’re also kinda worthless. Anyone can watch a 49ers OTA and log down who threw what pass, who caught the pass, which DB got “burned”, which WR had butterfingers, etc. It’s OTAs! Mistakes will hopefully be plenty because you want players to correct bad habits prior to the season. This is especially important for rookies and 2nd/3rd year guys who haven’t had opportunities to play yet.
In a sad attempt to show that he knows football and knows the 49ers, Cohn stupidly judges player performance during OTAs as if that’s a reliable predictor of the regular season. It’s not. He then piles inference upon inference to support his b.s. hypotheticals; all this is filler for his articles.
Oh and don’t forget Grant’s frequent dickish comments about second string players who may have been struggling in previous seasons, because nothing validates an insecure douchebag than displaced aggression.
Our players are learning a brand new system, some may still be dealing with injuries, or just now graduating from college, or adjusting to the speed of the pro game. There’s a reason other beat writers don’t bother to get to Cohn’s level of detail, the data isn’t credible very often (there are exceptions of course). Experienced beat writers, who actually had to work to get to where they’re at, will highlight some things from OTAs, maybe discuss players who consistently stood out or who showed up in great shape. What they won’t do is start assigning grades and passing judgements in June- it’s way too early for that!
P.S. It's fair to assume that he posts his own articles here under several fake accounts (this is unconfirmed, but I have a very strong hunch... kinda like how Grant starts most of his articles)
If when said articles get downloaded to oblivion or he just doesn't like the comments, he deletes them (this has happened multiple times on this subreddit).
TL;DR: Grant Cohn is a child with a thesaurus and a powerful dad.