SF 49ers: 4 players who benefit most from Jaquiski Tartt injury

The SF 49ers lost safety Jaquiski Tartt for the season, yet these four on the depth chart could stand to benefit in his absence.

The SF 49ers have become all too familiar with the idea that one player’s setback becomes another’s opportunity.

Sadly, the latest injury setback to befall head coach Kyle Shanahan’s squad is losing another starter, strong safety Jaquiski Tartt, whose turf-toe injury suffered in Week 9 against the Green Bay Packers has ended up being of the season-ending variety.

Tartt is an unrestricted free agent in 2021, and it doesn’t seem likely the cap-pressed Niners are going to make a strong effort to re-sign him this offseason.

So that essentially means the remaining seven games on San Francisco’s schedule provide the opportunity for Tartt’s backups to showcase their value, perhaps with the SF 49ers in future seasons or at least to the rest of the league looking for help in their own secondaries.

Here are four defensive backs who stand to benefit with Tartt being out of the picture for the rest of the season.

No. 4: SF 49ers Defensive Back Jared Mayden

There’s a strong chance fans have forgotten about former Alabama rookie defensive back Jared Mayden, who was plucked up by the Niners as an undrafted free agent last April.

Mayden, not running back JaMycal Hasty, was actually tabbed as San Francisco’s best UDFA addition last spring. And while he was largely overshadowed by his former Crimson Tide teammate, now-New York Giants safety Xavier McKinney, Mayden still had plenty of promise to warrant some pre-draft attention leading up to his falling through all seven rounds and into the undrafted ranks.

Mayden didn’t make the 49ers’ regular-season roster, rather being placed on the practice squad and was only elevated to the game-day roster in Week 7 against the New England Patriots where he saw action on 12 special teams snaps.

With the logjam ahead of him cleared up a bit, however, it wouldn’t be shocking to see Mayden much more regularly over the final half of the year, perhaps getting a bit more field time.

And potentially on the defensive side of the ball, too.