The 49ers needed to add some depth to their secondary. They waited until the fifth round where they took Toledo cornerback Samuel Womack. This selection could pay off more in the future than it does in 2022.
Womack didn’t have any Division-I scholarship offers coming out of high school and made Toledo’s football team as a walk-on in 2017. The following year he was awarded a scholarship. The next three years he led the Mid-American Conference in pass breakups and worked his way into a team captaincy.
He may have took take a roundabout route to a starting job in the NFL as well. The 2022 fifth-round pick projects as a nickel cornerback with his 5-9, 189-pound frame and the 49ers will likely use Emmanuel Moseley as their nickel corner in 2022.
Beyond this season though things are uncertain which is where Womack will get a chance to thrive. If he develops in 2022, there’s a strong chance he’s the frontrunner to be the nickelback in 2023 after 2021 fifth-round pick Deommodore Lenoir struggled as a rookie.
Perhaps Womack competes for the job this year, but San Francisco has a roster that allows them to put an eye toward the future with their later draft picks. That’s what this pick appears to be.
