5 cheap free agents SF 49ers should sign in case of injury
By Peter Panacy
SF 49ers Target No. 2: Cornerback Ross Cockrell
The SF 49ers could go through some shakeups at cornerback between now and Week 1, and perhaps the biggest pending bit of action would be seeing oft-injured corner Jason Verrett take over the No. 2 role opposite the veteran, Richard Sherman.
A byproduct of this is the real possibility fourth-year corner Ahkello Witherspoon fails to make the regular-season roster. Witherspoon has been up and down throughout training camp, much like his pro career, and he won’t exactly cost the Niners a lot in dead money if cut.
Assuming San Francisco moves on from Witherspoon, the only proven boundary corners available behind Sherman and Verrett are Emmanuel Moseley and Dontae Johnson, the latter likely nothing more than a camp body himself. But with Verrett’s injury history — he’s played in just six regular-season games since the beginning of 2016 — one has to think Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch have a list of corners they’d consider calling.
One of those should be 29-year-old veteran corner Ross Cockrell, who has been a regular starter in four of his five pro seasons and had a modestly productive 2019 campaign with the Carolina Panthers in which he recorded 62 tackles, two interceptions and eight pass breakups over 14 games played.
It might be a bit odd Cockrell hasn’t signed yet. But he has more than enough starting experience, and the longer he remains a free agent, the stronger the chances are he’ll sign on the cheap.