The 49ers put together the NFL’s top pass defense last year with just one Pro Bowler in the secondary.
San Francisco for the second consecutive season didn’t make any major changes to its cornerback group. That would’ve been fine if the team was set for the short and long term, but they don’t have a second established starting corner on the outside, and their depth is less than stellar.
How the cornerback group shakes out will be a huge determining factor in the team’s defensive success this season. Here’s what our projection for the wide open depth chart looks like going into camp.
Richard Sherman
Sherman is one of the cornerbacks entering the final year of his contract. He turned 32 this offseason, but he just turned in an All-Pro season and looks to be in line to continue playing at high level. His Super Bowl performance wasn’t his best, but the larger sample size of a full season leaves little concern about his viability as a shutdown corner in 2020. Sherman is still one of the best players at his position even if he does experience a small dip in production.
Emmanuel Moseley
He finished last season as the starter across from Sherman, so Moseley gets the nod going into camp. The former undrafted free agent initially got into game action by replacing an injured Ahkello Witherspoon. He wound up entering for games for Witherspoon in Week 17 and the divisional playoffs before locking down the starting job for the final two games of the year. Moseley’s spot is far from locked in though. He’ll need a consistently strong preseason to earn the starting job.
K’Waun Williams
Williams is quietly one of the top nickel corners in the NFL. 2019 wasn’t an out-of-nowhere season either. According to Pro Football Focus, “the only two qualifying cornerbacks with a better overall grade in the slot than Williams since 2014 are Chris Harris Jr. and Desmond King II.” Williams is also on the final year of his deal, but he’s one of the team’s most consistently good players and he’s all but guaranteed a starting job for 2020.
Ahkello Witherspoon
The 2017 third-round pick is going into the final year of his contract in a precarious spot. He was good in Year 1, struggled in Year 2, and was somewhere between Pro Bowler and backup in Year 3. The Pro Bowl-caliber play is why Witherspoon continues to be in the conversation as a starter. If he wins the starting job, his play in 2020 could earn him a nice contract beyond this season. That won’t happen if he winds up playing only a reserve role or losing his starting job again.
Dontae Johnson
This is where the 49ers’ cornerback depth takes a pretty steep drop off. Johnson is on his third stint with the 49ers after the team let him walk following a disappointing 2017 campaign. He’s a good depth piece, but it’s telling that he was never in the mix to play last season while the 49ers struggled to find a consistent starter across from Sherman. Still, his experience puts him in the early lead in a long race for roster spots.
Jason Verrett
Verrett would be higher if injuries weren’t such a problem. He finally worked his way back into a spot where he was the first player off the bench when Witherspoon initially went down with a foot injury in Week 3. He gave up two long plays and a touchdown in two snaps, hurt his knee and was out for the year. Verrett is a very talented player, but his inability to stay healthy makes it hard to put him very high on a depth chart projection.
Teez Tabor
Tabor was once a highly-touted cornerback prospect who’s stock started falling with a poor combine showing, and he never quite recovered. The Lions took him in the second round of the 2017 draft, and he struggled through two seasons before they let him go prior to last year. In 24 games with Detroit, he recorded no pass breakups and no interceptions, and in 2018 he gave up a passer rating of 143.3 when targeted according to Pro Football Reference. Tabor struggled in a man-heavy scheme with the Lions, and could benefit from a zone-heavy scheme in San Francisco.
Tim Harris
The 2019 sixth-round pick has the physical tools to be a starting NFL corner. He’s had injury problems since college though and spent all of last year on injured reserve. Harris was once a highly-touted recruit out of high school and played well at the University of Virginia when he was healthy. He’s an intriguing player to watch in camp, but he has to stay healthy first.
Jermaine Kelly
Like Harris, Kelly was a highly-touted high school recruit who wound up at the University of Washington. He spent two seasons there before transferring to San Jose State. Injuries plagued him in college, but didn’t stop the Texans from making him a seventh-round pick in 2018. He was hurt during his rookie campaign and released prior to last season. The 49ers added him to their practice squad late in the year. Kelly has good size at 6-1, 204 pounds, but special teams is his most likely role if he works his way up to the final roster.
DeMarkus Acy
Acy was one of the 49ers undrafted free agent signings after the 2020 NFL draft. He has good size at 6-2, 195 pounds and was a three-year starter for Mizzou. He had three interceptions, all as a junior, and 23 pass breakups during his career. Acy has a good chance to make waves as a UDFA in a thin group of reserve cornerback options for the 49ers.
