49ers roster: One year and done for Deommodore Lenoir?

After impressing his rookie offseason, 49ers cornerback Deommodore Lenoir suddenly finds himself way down on the depth chart and potentially off of it in 2022.

There was a point heading towards Week 1 of the 2021 season where it looked like the San Francisco 49ers identified yet another one of those late-round hidden-gem studs from the NFL Draft.

Former Oregon cornerback Deommodore Lenoir impressed during rookie minicamp, then carried a lot of that swagger over into training camp and the preseason, setting what appeared to be a tone with an interception in the exhibition Week 1 game against the Kansas City Chiefs.

Not bad for a player whom the Niners grabbed in Round 5 at No. 172 overall. The performance surely was going to help exceed the expectations, right?

Fast-forward to the end of San Francisco’s 2021 campaign, and Lenoir had found himself benched, appearing solely on special teams and then not at all during the final regular-season game of the year:

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Generated 6/30/2022.

The 49ers were hurting for cornerbacks at that point, particularly in the wake of losing Jason Verrett earlier in the year and after fellow veteran Josh Norman showed his ineffectiveness.

But Lenoir wasn’t called upon.

Heading into 2022, the prospects for Lenoir to somehow make a huge impact with the Niners seem even slimmer than before, thanks largely to San Francisco’s offseason efforts to completely overhaul the position.

Could this push the former Duck off the 49ers roster altogether by Week 1? Let’s take a look.

How Deommodore Lenoir makes massive leap in Year 2

There’s the usual association with young defensive backs and how they tend to struggle transitioning from the college ranks to the pros. The routes they need to cover are far more complex, and the receivers are all bigger, stronger and faster than the usual level of competition at the collegiate level.

While Lenoir did match up against Niners wideout Brandon Aiyuk when Oregon played Arizona State, that’s just one small bout against a pro-level receiver.

Despite his smallish 5-foot-10, 200-pound frame, Lenoir did earn a reputation for being feisty and wouldn’t shy away from being physical with wide receivers, a bonus in press-man coverage. If coordinator DeMeco Ryans begins to shift more towards this kind of defensive scheme, Lenoir could be one of the players who benefits.

Why Deommodore Lenoir flames out with 49ers before Week 1

San Francisco’s other 2021 rookie corner, Ambry Thomas, almost had the opposite trajectory compared to Lenoir. In Thomas’ case, he struggled early before making a late-season ascent.

Lenoir, meanwhile, got off to that hot preseason start but wrapped up his rookie campaign allowing 12 catches for 192 yards and two touchdowns with opposing quarterbacks posting a 125.4 passer rating when targeting him.

Nothing on tape suggested he was equal to the task of matching up against even modest-level boundary receivers. And considering he almost never played on the inside at Oregon, generally lacking the quick twitch anyway, it’s not like Lenoir will be able to cut it as a nickel cornerback either despite some early hopes he would.

Chances Deommodore Lenoir makes 49ers’ 53-man roster in 2022

As a fifth-round pick, year two of his rookie contract will cost the 49ers up to just under $900,000 if Lenoir makes the roster, but the Niners would be on the hook for just $71,217 this season if waived, according to Over the Cap.

From a financial perspective, the second-year pro should be viewed as anything but safe.

On top of that, the Niners’ 2022 offseason moves at corner only serve to push Lenoir down the depth chart. Inking high-profile free-agent cornerback Charvarius Ward pushes everyone else down, while re-signing Verrett and continuing to develop Thomas won’t help either. Tack on all-but-guaranteed-to-return defensive backs like Emmanuel Moseley and Dontae Johnson, one can see how the remaining spots on the depth chart are being filled.

Additionally, San Francisco grabbed two more corners in this year’s draft, Samuel Womack in Round 5 and Tariq Castro-Fields in Round 7, adding two more bodies to compete with even more cornerbacks on the back end of San Francisco’s offseason roster.

Lenoir isn’t going to unseat Ward, Moseley or Womack, and he’ll likely have a tough time beating out Johnson and Thomas, too. If Verrett is healthy enough to go, it’s merely a numbers game for Lenoir, and that’s only if he avoids the pitfalls that earned him a spot on the bench late last year.

Simply put, it’s going to be an uphill climb and one that could push him off the Week 1 roster altogether.