Picking a specific player as the “most underrated” on the 49ers isn’t an easy exercise. For one, defining “underrated” is nigh impossible leaving everybody’s selections to come from a different standard. There’s an interesting theme in recent selections of the 49ers’ most underrated player from a couple of different national outlets: San Francisco’s cornerbacks room needs to get more shine.
Pro Football Focus made a list of the most underrated player on each NFL team and chose CB Deommodore Lenoir for the 49ers. Touchdown Wire made their own most underrated list and put down CB Charvarius Ward.
It’s clear that while so much of the focus has (rightly) been on the 49ers’ pass rush since their string of deep playoff runs began in 2019, their secondary has now improved significantly and is worth discussing as one of the strengths of San Francisco’s defense instead of a weakness.
While Ward received recognition for his 2023 campaign with a Second-Team All-Pro nod, not many non-49ers fans would likely consider him one of their best players. He very much was a season ago though and allowed the 49ers’ defense to continue thriving despite their pass rush dealing with some inconsistencies. Ward received his best-ever overall grade from PFF last season and allowed a paltry 63.7 passer rating when targeted. He was one of the NFL’s best CBs without question.
Then there was Lenoir who came on strong at the end of 2022 and carried into 2023 where he posted his career-best overall PFF grade while splitting time between outside and in the slot. He also had a career-high six pass breakups to go along with his three interceptions.
A quality one-two punch at CB is not something every team has. And while figuring out the third CB spot will be paramount for San Francisco in training camp, it’s clear at this point they at least have a pair of Pro Bowl caliber corners. If their pass rush rekindles its dominance in 2024 we might see Ward and Lenoir put up numbers that get them out of the realm of the underrated.
