49ers should sign CB Steven Nelson as a cheap free agent

The 49ers still have cornerback depth needs despite re-signing Jason Verrett and K’Waun Williams, meaning Steven Nelson could be an easy target.

Despite the San Francisco 49ers re-signing starting cornerbacks like Jason Verrett, K’Waun Williams and Emmanuel Moseley, there’s still a need to bolster this part of the depth chart.

The opening three weeks of NFL free agency this offseason haven’t always been too kind to available cornerbacks. The former Niners veteran, Richard Sherman, remains on the open market despite his lengthy stat sheet and pedigree. Even Verrett and Williams elected to accept cheap one-year deals in the wake of the diminished salary cap, too.

Even this deep into the offseason, there are still some quality cornerbacks available, and former Pittsburgh Steelers corner Steven Nelson would be a smart target who’d likely be had on the cheap.

True, San Francisco is likely to invest at least one early NFL Draft pick on a cornerback to guard against Verrett and Williams’ injury histories and to potentially develop as a starting-caliber option to replace one of them in 2022. But young defensive backs often struggle to transition from the college ranks to the pros, especially considering the coverage schemes are more complex and the opposing receivers are vastly superior to anything experienced at the collegiate level.

So, it wouldn’t hurt to add some veteran’s savvy.

Steven Nelson could help 49ers in a number of ways

Whether it be for depth or as a starting option in 2021, there are a number of reasons why the 49ers targeting Nelson make sense.

For starters, the 28-year-old Nelson is a four-year starter who had a combined six interceptions over the last three years with 52 career pass breakups. And while his 5-foot-11 stature seems a bit small for the Niners’ traditional long, lanky boundary cornerbacks in Sherman’s ilk, the fact San Francisco has used shorter corners like Verrett and Moseley on the outside suggests it’s not entirely committed to the idea a boundary cornerback has to be over 6-foot tall.

Even so, Nelson has served as a quality outside cornerback in his career anyway. A year ago, Pro Football Focus gave him a solid 68.1 pass-coverage grade, which isn’t too far off from Verrett’s Pro Bowl-caliber 76.1 mark in 2020.

The sheer number of pass breakups Nelson has enjoyed, combined with his solid 82.3 passer rating allowed with him in coverage, suggest he’d be a wise addition on the cheap.

And the longer Nelson remains a free agent, it’s likely the cheaper he’d sign.

The 49ers have to take into account Verrett, despite being healthy in 2020, missed almost the entirety of each regular season between 2016 and 2019 with injuries. Moseley has bounced back and forth from the starting lineup, too, and a rookie corner might be too raw to be inserted right away.

Even if it’s just for a cheap one-year deal, Nelson could help solve some of the major questions at the position, both by providing a starting-caliber player while, at the very least, adding some experienced depth in case another player on the roster earns the starting job out of training camp.