Niners Nation
Your daily San Francisco 49ers news for Wednesday, November 13th, 2024
49ers sign Deommodore Lenoir to massive 5-year extension [report]
“It’s a figure which, regardless of how much turns out to be guaranteed, makes Lenoir the highest, or second-highest-paid nickel corner in the NFL (Marlon Humphrey plays in the slot substantially, too). Now, he’s not just a nickel, which is why the 49ers cut this check this early. They didn’t want to see him make it to the market.
Lenoir’s ability to play in the slot on nickel downs and outside on base downs makes him an invaluable asset. He fits runs better than most of the 49ers’ linebackers and has been a dynamic playmaker in the pass game. Pro Football Focus, for whatever it’s worth, has him as the 43rd-highest-graded corner in the NFL out of 119 qualified corner (Renardo Green is third).
This sets the stage for the 49ers to move forward with a pairing of Lenoir, 25, and the already stellar Green, 24, as their cornerbacks of the present and future. All of a sudden the 49ers’ young defensive talent lies heavily in their secondary.”
Source: 49ers’ Deommodore Lenoir gets 5-year, $92M extension
“The deal comes in the midst of a season when Lenoir has emerged as one of the Niners’ best — and most versatile — young players, even on a roster with plenty of star power. Through those nine contests, Lenoir has 53 tackles, a forced fumble and two interceptions. He has allowed a passer rating of just 66.5 when targeted as the nearest defender, according to Next Gen Stats......He has done all of that despite bouncing between outside corner and playing in the slot when the Niners go into nickel packages. It’s a double duty he began taking on toward the end of the 2022 season before fully embracing last season, when he played 570 snaps at outside corner and 311 in the slot, allowing a minus-4.7 EPA (expected points added), 80.1 passer rating and just one touchdown when targeted.
Despite starting this season on the final year of his rookie contract and the Niners’ desire to sign him, Lenoir told ESPN in August he wasn’t in a hurry to sign an extension because he was “at the point where I’m trying to be one of the top guys in the NFL as far as the corner position, the nickel position, just somewhere in the top where a lot of people starting to recognize me and remember my name.”
“Indeed, simply having McCaffrey back on the field helped the 49ers offense begin to get back to its roots. Much like other teams that have played the 49ers this season, the Bucs played more man coverage than usual, dropping from their preferred zone coverage rate of 75.7% average to 60% against San Francisco.
On multiple occasions, McCaffrey either found himself in single coverage against a linebacker (he beat the Bucs’ Lavonte David for the...
