49ers hope for answers just around the corners
Fans prone to anxiety are advised to skip the next sentence: The 49ers’ cornerbacks under contract for 2021 are Tim Harris, Ken Webster, Mark Fields II and Adonis Alexander. That’s alarming. Coaches often say they can never have enough cornerbacks in the passhappy NFL … and the 49ers don’t have contractual control over a player at the position who has more than 237 career defensive snaps. All seven corners on the roster who started a game in 2020 are pending free agents.
With their corner cupboard bare, the 49ers could add multiple corners in both free agency and the draft, while retaining a few of their own.
There is plenty of work to do, and the first step toward stabilizing the spot figures to start before free agency begins Wed
nesday.
The 49ers will almost certainly keep Emmanuel Moseley — whose name fans recognize — by locking up the restricted free agent who has made 17 starts over the past two seasons. If the 49ers don’t work out an extension with Moseley, they could be assured of keeping him with a secondround tender that would come with a price tag of about $3.3 million. If a team matches the offer, it would have to give the 49ers a secondround pick, which is exceedingly unlikely.
After that, there are few sure things.
It appears 32yearold Richard Sherman — due to his age, injury history and price tag — was right when he said during the season that it would take a “miracle” for him to return to the 49ers.
Given that, the top priorities to retain are Jason Verrett, 29, who is coming off a brilliant comeback season, and K’Waun Williams, 29, their firststring slot cornerback since 2017.
However, both players were favorites of former defensive coordinator Robert Saleh, who is now the head coach of the Jets, who have the NFL’s secondmost salary cap space.
In addition, Verrett and Williams are presumably eager for their first real shot at free agency, particularly given that the market won’t be teeming with elite corners. Verrett, who played in just six games from 20162019 due to injuries, has previously been rehabbing when he has reached the open market. And Williams, who was undrafted, has established himself as one of the league’s top slot corners since he signed a modest extension in 2017.
After the season, Verrett, who had a $910,000 base salary last year, expressed gratitude to the 49ers but was understandably noncommittal.
“Seeing how they turned things around for me physically and mentally, it’s kind of hard to not want to come back,” Verrett said. “It’s kind of hard to not want to see if we can work things out just because it’s a classact organization. It’s definitely going to be a tough decision, for sure.”
Among the 49ers’ other freeagent corners, only Ahkello Witherspoon, whose fourseason career has been marked by wild inconsistency, would figure to have a chance to assume a significant role if brought back. The others are Dontae Johnson and slot corner Jamar Taylor, who is rehabbing from a torn ACL.
The freeagent options? Arizona’s Patrick Peterson, 30, and Sherman will be the biggest names. However, Peterson, an eighttime Pro Bowl selection, will come with a hefty price tag amid concerns about a latecareer decline. Other topend possibilities include Seattle’s Shaquill Griffin, Cincinnati’s William Jackson and Washington’s Ronald Darby.
Depending on free agency, cornerback could be an obvious draft target for the 49ers with their No. 12 pick. Virginia Tech’s Caleb Farley, who opted out last year, and Alabama’s Patrick Surtain, a unanimous All-American who was the SEC’s Defensive Player of the Year in 2020, are potential top10 picks. South Carolina’s Jaycee Horn and Northwestern’s Greg Newsome, who elevated his stock by running a blazing 4.38 40yard dash at his pro day Tuesday, figure to be top20 selections.