3 veteran corners SF 49ers can sign to replace Richard Sherman
By Peter Panacy
SF 49ers Target No. 2: D.J. Hayden, Jacksonville Jaguars
Replacing Richard Sherman could be done in a roundabout way in 2021, electing to spend free-agent money on typically less-expensive nickel cornerbacks and pushing other options toward the boundary.
The SF 49ers could also lose their starting nickel corner, K’Waun Williams, to free agency this offseason. Re-signing restricted free-agent cornerback Emmanuel Moseley could be a means to offset a possible Williams departure, but that wouldn’t solve any of the boundary issues left in Sherman’s wake.
Unless the Niners bring in a quality nickel in free agency, retain Moseley and re-sign fellow cornerback Jason Verrett this season.
Jacksonville Jaguars cornerback D.J. Hayden has had a disappointing campaign in 2020, marred by a bad Jags defense and a hamstring injury that forced him onto injured reserve. But in 2019, Pro Football Focus tabbed him as one of the league’s 10 best cornerbacks. And while he’ll turn 31 years old next season, there’s still a good deal of proverbial “tread left on his tires.”
The Jaguars still run a defense under coordinator Todd Walsh not totally unlike the one employed in San Francisco, making the schematic adjustment one of relative ease, should Hayden be an SF 49ers free-agent target.