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49ers Sign Rookie UDFA Nickelback Derrick Canteen to Three-Year Deal

The nickelback competition is wide open. If he continues to impress this offseason, he just might make the team.
Grant Cohn|
Sep 28, 2024; Lubbock, Texas, USA; Cincinnati Bearcats defensive safety Derrick Canteen (10) looks to the sideline in the first half during the game against the Texas Tech Red Raiders at Jones AT&T Stadium and Cody Campbell Field. Mandatory Credit: Michael C. Johnson-Imagn Images
Sep 28, 2024; Lubbock, Texas, USA; Cincinnati Bearcats defensive safety Derrick Canteen (10) looks to the sideline in the first half during the game against the Texas Tech Red Raiders at Jones AT&T Stadium and Cody Campbell Field. Mandatory Credit: Michael C. Johnson-Imagn Images | Michael C. Johnson-Imagn Images

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San Francisco 49ers

The 49ers just added depth to their defensive-back room.

Undrafted free agent rookie Derrick Canteen has signed a three-year deal with the 49ers the team announced on Tuesday. Canteen was invited to the 49ers rookie minicamp last week and clearly impressed. To make room for him on the roster, the 49ers waived safety Quindell Johnson.

The 49ers list Canteen as a cornerback, but Cincinnati lists him as a safety. Last season, he played all over Cincinnati's defense, but he mostly played safety and nickelback. He played just a handful of snaps as a true cornerback near the boundary. I would expect the 49ers are going to play him at nickelback.

The past two seasons, the 49ers' starting nickelback was Deommodore Lenoir -- he would line up outside in the base defense and move to the slot in the nickel defense. Now, Robert Saleh is back as the 49ers defensive coordinator, he prefers to have a full-time nickelback who doesn't move back and forth. Which means Lenoir will stay outside this season.

That's why the 49ers drafted Upton Stout in Round 3 -- to play nickelback exclusively. Fifth-round pick Marques Sigle also has nickel experience. And so does Canteen. It's worth noting that Sigle sat out of rookie minicamp with an undisclosed injury. Maybe the 49ers signed Canteen because Sigle won't be available for a while. We'll find out in two weeks when OTAs start.

The nickelback competition is wide open. If he continues to impress this offseason, he just might make the team.

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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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