49ers NFL Draft: Grading rookie class halfway through 2021
By Peter Panacy
49ers Round 5 Pick: Cornerback Deommodore Lenoir
Of those two rookie corners, Deommodore Lenoir certainly looked the part to make a bigger impact right away, which shouldn’t have been too big a surprise, considering Ambry Thomas opted out of his 2020 campaign because of the pandemic.
And Lenoir managed to start San Francisco’s first two games of the season, too, flashing signs that he could be a starting-caliber defensive back even in light of the handful of times where he got himself beat deep (see Week 2 against the Philadelphia Eagles), which have combined to him having allowed eight completions on 16 targets so far this season.
Yet Lenoir was ultimately relegated to backup duties the following week, then turned into merely a special teams contributor in Weeks 4 and 5 before emerging as a healthy scratch ever since. True, Lenoir welcomed a child into the world recently, and the 49ers excused him for that, explaining some of his gameday inactive designations.
But, similar to Thomas not getting field time in favor of Josh Norman and Dre Kirkpatrick, it’s nevertheless puzzling to see why Lenoir isn’t ranked higher up the depth chart.
This hasn’t been a disaster pick by any stretch, and it’s possible the Niners are misusing Lenoir at the present moment.
Still, we’d like to see a bit more from Lenoir.