All 49ers

NFL Mock Draft: 49ers Make Controversial Pick in Round 1

We'll see if head coach Kyle Shanahan gives the green light.
Grant Cohn|
Feb 27, 2025; Indianapolis, IN, USA; San Francisco 49ers general manager John Lynch speaks during the 2025 NFL Scouting Combine at the Indiana Convention Center. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images
Feb 27, 2025; Indianapolis, IN, USA; San Francisco 49ers general manager John Lynch speaks during the 2025 NFL Scouting Combine at the Indiana Convention Center. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

In this story:

San Francisco 49ers

Of all the position groups on the 49ers, cornerback might be the strongest one.

They currently have two good starters at the position: Deommodore Lenoir and Renardo Green. The 49ers can't say that about many other position groups such as the defensive line which has Nick Bosa and that's about it.

And yet, NFL.com's Chad Reuter projects the 49ers to pick Michigan cornerback Will Johnson in Round 1.

"The departure of Charvarius Ward leads the 49ers to pick Johnson," writes Reuter. "His lack of demonstrable elite long speed (he has not run a public pre-draft 40, thanks in part to a hamstring injury, and suffered a season-ending foot injury last year) might make him available here. Johnson's ball awareness and secure tackling as a zone defender jibe with the zone-heavy scheme Kyle Shanahan and Robert Saleh leaned on when last together in 2020."

Reuter makes a good case for Johnson. Because as good as Lenoir and Green are, it's unclear if either one truly is a No. 1 lockdown cornerback. Johnson could be a young Richard Sherman in the 49ers' defensive system.

Like Johnson, Sherman wasn't particularly fast -- he ran a 4.53 at the Combine. But in the Seattle Seahawks' cover-3 zone scheme, he was a Hall of Fame player.

Sherman's first defensive coordinator on the Seahawks was Gus Bradley, who currently is the 49ers' assistant head coach. I'm guessing Bradley loves Johnson and would like to take him with the 11th pick.

We'll see if head coach Kyle Shanahan gives the green light.

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