One round before Kendall Hunter, Trent Baalke elected to reinforce the Niners secondary with former South Carolina cornerback Chris Culliver.
Culliver’s rookie season wasn’t particularly impressive, and 49ers fans can probably still recall his issues in coverage during San Francisco’s playoff push into early January. 2012 was marginally better, as Culliver began to adjust to pro-level coverage schemes. And in 2013, signs pointed to him finally putting all the pieces together.
The only problem was he ended up missing the entire year, due to an Achilles injury.
2014 proved to be Culliver’s best year with the 49ers and at the pro level — noted by Pro Football Focus’ Jeff Deeney:
Chris Culliver struggled in Weeks 1-3 returning from ACL injury, but from Week 4 on his +10.8 coverage grade ranked fifth among CBs. #49ers
— Jeff Deeney (@PFF_Jeff) March 1, 2015
This allowed the cornerback to cash in on a big free-agent deal with the Washington Redskins in 2015, although he was released the following year and has been dealing with a plethora of injuries ever since.