Detroit Lions have signed former 49ers wide receiver Ronnie Bell to a reserve/future deal

The 49ers have just lost one of their draft picks for 2023.

On Tuesday, wide receiver Ronnie Bell signed a reserve/future contract with the Detroit Lions. Bell finished his season on the 49ers’ practice squad.

The 49ers selected Bell in Round 7 of the 2023 NFL Draft. And, as a rookie, he demonstrated promise. He played in all seventeen regular-season games, catching six passes and scoring three touchdowns.

However, 2024 proved disastrous for Bell. He was given the opportunity to play early in the season when Deebo Samuel was out with an injury in Week 3. That week, the 49ers faced the Rams in Los Angeles, and Bell dropped a crucial deep pass late in the fourth quarter that would have put the 49ers in field goal range. They eventually lost by three points, and their season went out of control from there.

Of course, Bell isn’t to blame for the 49ers’ disastrous season. However, they eventually waived him and placed him on their practice squad, which likely meant his time with the 49ers was over. Now it appears he’ll get another chance with the Lions. He will be added to their 53-man roster when the new league year begins on March 12.

Bell still has talent as a receiver. He’s not the biggest or fastest player, but he could be useful in the slot, backing up Amon-Ra St. Brown. Furthermore, Bell is a willing and effective blocker who previously played for Jim Harbaugh at the University of Michigan.

Grant Cohn has been covering the San Francisco 49ers on a daily basis since 2011. He spent the first nine years of his career at the Santa Rosa Press Democrat, where he wrote the Inside the 49ers blog and covered famous coaches and athletes like Jim Harbaugh, Colin Kaepernick, and Patrick Willis. Inside the 49ers won the Peninsula Press Club’s Sports Blog of the Year award in 2012. In 2020, Cohn joined FanNation and began writing for All49ers. In addition, he created a YouTube channel that has become the go-to place on YouTube for 49ers content. Cohn’s channel typically receives around 3.5 million viewers per month, whereas the 49ers’ official YouTube channel receives about 1.5 million viewers per month. Cohn livestreams almost every day and posts videos hourly during football season. Cohn is dedicated to asking the questions that 49ers fans want answered while providing the most honest and interactive coverage in the country. His commitment is to the reader and viewer, not to the team, any player, or coach. Cohn is a new-age multimedia journalist with a traditional mindset, as his father is Lowell Cohn, the legendary sports columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1979 to 1993. Every Tuesday, the two record a live podcast. Grant Cohn grew up in Oakland and studied English Literature at UCLA between 2006 and 2010. He is currently living in Oakland with his wife.