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Will the 49ers Draft a Cornerback Before Round 5?

Since Kyle Shanahan became the head coach in 2017, the 49ers never have drafted a cornerback before Round 3, and they've taken only two corners before Round 5
Grant Cohn|
Feb 7, 2024; Las Vegas, NV, USA; San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan speaks during a press
Feb 7, 2024; Las Vegas, NV, USA; San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan speaks during a press | Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

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San Francisco 49ers

One of the 49ers' biggest needs heading into the NFL Draft is cornerback.

They have two good ones -- Charvarius Ward and Deommodore Lenoir -- who both will be free agents next year. And they don't have a good no. 3 cornerback. Last year, they had to sign a retired Logan Ryan off a cruise ship midseason to play corner for them in their nickel defense, and he gave up the game-losing touchdown catch in the Super Bowl. Now he's retired again, and the 49ers' don't have a clear-cut no. 3 corner.

They have Isaac Yiadom, Ambry Thomas, Samuel Womack and Darrell Luter Jr. -- four guys who will compete for the job. It's possible none are good enough to hold it down. Which means the 49ers certainly should consider drafting a cornerback as early as Round 1.

But since Kyle Shanahan became the head coach in 2017, the 49ers never have drafted a cornerback before Round 3, and they've taken only two corners before Round 5 -- Thomas and Ahkello Witherspoon. Neither player panned for the 49ers, although Witherspoon had a good season last year for the Rams.

The 49ers want to play mostly zone coverage, so they don't value cornerbacks. They don't ask them to do much. That's why they've drafted so many corners in Round 5 or later: Luter, Womack, Tariq Castro-Fields, Lenoir, Tim Harris and D.J. Reed.

When the 49ers want a corner who can play man-to-man coverage, they tend to draft that player in Round 3. But new defensive coordinator Nick Sorensen comes from zone-coverage background, and so does assistant head coach Brandon Staley, so don't expect the 49ers to change their tendencies this year.

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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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