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PFF Names Renardo Green the 49ers' Top Breakout Candidate for 2025

One of the 49ers' most underrated players last season was cornerback Renardo Green.
Grant Cohn|
December 30, 2024; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers cornerback Renardo Green (0) deflects the football intended for Detroit Lions tight end Sam LaPorta (87) in the endzone during the second quarter at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-Imagn Images
December 30, 2024; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers cornerback Renardo Green (0) deflects the football intended for Detroit Lions tight end Sam LaPorta (87) in the endzone during the second quarter at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-Imagn Images | Kyle Terada-Imagn Images

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San Francisco 49ers

One of the 49ers' most underrated players last season was cornerback Renardo Green.

He was a rookie, so he started only seven games and played just 63 percent of the defensive snaps. And yet, he still broke up 13 passes -- tied for 13th most in the entire NFL. Now, entering his second season he's a full-time starter who is expected to play 100 percent of the defensive snaps.

That's a big reason that Pro Football Focus has named Green the 49ers' top breakout candidate of 2025.

"Green took on a larger role in the latter half of his rookie season, filling in for Charvarius Ward most often, which he’ll now have to do on a permanent basis," writes PFF analyst Jonathon Macri. "Green earned a 74.3 coverage grade and posted a 15.7% forced incompletion rate – both of which were top-20 marks at the position.

"With no significant competition brought in this offseason to help alleviate the Ward loss on the outside, there is at least some perceived confidence that the 2024 second-rounder can continue his strong play on a full-time basis."

Macri is right on with his analysis. The 49ers love Green and expect him to take a big step forward this year under defensive coordinator Robert Saleh.

But wide receiver Ricky Pearsall might be an even bigger breakout candidate than Green. Now that Deebo Samuel finally is off the team and Brandon Aiyuk is still recovering from knee surgery, the 49ers will need a wide receiver to step up. And in the final two games of last season, Pearsall caught 14 passes for 210 yards and 2 touchdowns.

Both Pearsall and Green could have terrific seasons.

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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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