While San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Mike Evans rightfully got a lot of praise for his performance in Sunday’s victory over the Seattle Seahawks, the defense came up huge as well, especially cornerback Renardo Green. He had two interceptions and completely redeemed himself from the last time he was in Seattle.
Earlier this year as the Niners were getting absolutely smoked by Seattle in the NFC divisional round of the playoffs, head coach Kyle Shanahan absolutely laid into Green on the sideline as he chewed him out for lackluster play.
That single moment inspired an offseason of speculation about Green’s status coming into this season. Would he be traded? Would the Niners try to draft a replacement? Maybe bring in some veteran free agents to put pressure on him?
They ended up doing both as they brought in veterans like Jack Jones and Nate Hobbs while also drafting Ephesians Prysock in the fourth round. Still, Green was able to fend them off and hang onto his starting role after a solid showing in training camp.
Renardo Green responded to Kyle Shanahan in best way possible
It’s clear Green did a lot of work in the offseason, and it is now paying off as he has three interceptions this year. He had no picks in 14 games last season and just one in 17 games during his rookie season so he is trending towards a breakout year at this pace.
Seattle was such a huge game for the Niners because it was their biggest test of the early season, and for Green, it had to have so much significance because he knows what happened there the last time. San Francisco got embarrassed and he got chewed out, so he could not have picked a better time to step up.
He allowed only 5 yards in coverage on Sunday and had a forced incompletion along with the two picks on five targets. Seattle clearly thought it could bully him just like in the playoff game, but it was sorely mistaken.
Now it’s a matter of building off this for Green. It would be easy to have a let down after such a big performance, but he just needs to keep his head down and keep working, because if he can become a shutdown corner, then the Niners will have a pretty great secondary between him, Deommodore Lenoir, Upton Stout, Malik Mustapha, and Ji’Ayir Brown.
Everyone loves a good redemption story, but if Green can keep getting better, then he is on track for a great season.
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