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With Emmanuel Mosley out for the season with a torn ACL, the San Francisco 49ers have had to turn to Deommodore Lenoir to fill the outside cornerback spot opposite Charvarius Ward.
The prospects of having to replace a fan-favorite cornerback in the middle of the best statistical season of his career is certainly a tough ask, so the 49ers’ bye week might have come just at the right time for Lenoir, a second-year pro who’d had only three career starts when Mosley went down on October 9.
“I’m going to increase my film study and come back and try to be the best person I can be,” Lenoir told Matt Maiocco of NBC Sports Bay Area for a story published November 3.
Lenoir also was going to “spend the first two days of the bye week watching video of himself to identify ways in which he can improve his play,” Maiocco wrote. The 49ers (4-4) get back in action November 13 at home against the Los Angeles Chargers.
Maiocco wrote that Lenoir understands that the Chargers will test — and probably — beat him but that he knows not to dwell on the failures.
“I developed that going through college,” Lenoir said, according to Maiocco. “I was more of a person when something went wrong or something happened or I messed up or it was bad on my end, I was the person who I would let that get to me. Now, it’s short-term memory and I try to turn it into a positive.
“In this league, you have to be a tough person to go out and compete every game against the best of the best and be criticized. You have to have a tough skin.”
John Lynch Is Happy With Deommodore Lenoir’s Performance
49ers general manager John Lynch complimented the play of his 2021 fifth-round pick, especially his defensive versatility.
“Deommodore Lenoir has really impressed,” Lynch said, according to Maiocco. “He’s played nickel. He’s played outside. Wherever he’s played, he’s competed at a really high level. It hasn’t been flawless, but it’s been really good. He’s got a lot of fight to him, and he’s a really skilled player.”
Lenoir Named San Francisco 49ers’ Weak Link
Though Lynch said he was happy to have Lenoir on his roster, Grant Cohn of Sports Illustrated’s All 49ers FN isn’t as high on Lenoir, calling him “The Weakest Link on the 49ers Defense.”
“So far this season, Lenoir has given up 26 catches on 35 targets (74.3 percent), 8.7 yards per target and a passer rating of 100.4. To his credit, he hasn’t given up a touchdown catch, but he also has broken up just one pass and intercepted none,” Cohn wrote for the story, published November 5. “He’s playing extremely conservative soft coverage, meaning he’s trying to keep the wide receiver in front of him and not give up big plays. Instead, he’s giving up lots of shorter catches and not putting up much resistance. He essentially is content to concede catches and make tackles. This will be a problem in the playoffs when the 49ers face offenses with serious firepower.”
Will Lenoir’s penchant for giving up catches prove a hindrance down the stretch and especially in the playoffs? Or will the 49ers be able to overcome this issue?
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