All 49ers

The 49ers' Secondary Ranks 23rd in the NFL per Pro Football Focus

The 49ers used to have one of the best secondaries in the NFL.
Grant Cohn|
Jun 10, 2025; Santa Clara, CA, USA; San Francisco 49ers cornerback Deommodore Lenoir (2) takes a break from drills during an OTA at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: D. Ross Cameron-Imagn Images
Jun 10, 2025; Santa Clara, CA, USA; San Francisco 49ers cornerback Deommodore Lenoir (2) takes a break from drills during an OTA at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: D. Ross Cameron-Imagn Images | D. Ross Cameron-Imagn Images

In this story:

San Francisco 49ers

The 49ers used to have one of the best secondaries in the NFL.

That was when they had Charvarius Ward, Talanoa Hufanga and Jimmie Ward in addition to Deommodore Lenoir. Now, Hufanga and the two Wards are gone, and their replacements are largely unproven.

That's why Pro Football Focus ranks the 49ers' secondary 23rd out of 32 NFL secondaries.

"Another unit hampered by missing pieces throughout parts of the season, the 49ers made several changes in hopes of returning to top-10 form," writes PFF's John Kosko. "Deommodore Lenoir remains a solid holdover and has graded well over the past two seasons, while 2024 rookie Renardo Green came on strong in the second half of the year. With a few draft additions and free-agent signings, this group will look drastically different in 2025. How quickly the new pieces gel will determine whether the secondary can bounce back."

Kosko didn't even mention that starting strong safety Malik Mustapha is recovering from his second torn ACL and probably won't be ready for the start of the season.

The 49ers currently have more than $45 million in cap space -- you'd think they'd want to sign a cornerback or a safety to sure up this unit. Someone such as Justin Simmons, Rasul Douglas or Asante Samuel Jr. Instead, they seem more interested in rolling over their cap space to 2026.

For this unit to be above average, they need second-year cornerback Renardo Green to take another step forward, third-year safety Ji'Ayir Brown to have a major bounce-back season, and rookie nickelback Upton Stout to make an immediate impact.

Seems like a long shot.

Read more

Published
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.

Share on XFollow grantcohn
Home/News