{"id":55171,"date":"2025-08-02T14:39:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-02T14:39:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/55171\/"},"modified":"2025-08-02T14:39:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-02T14:39:08","slug":"49ers-news-robert-saleh-reveals-sleeper-candidate-to-start-in-secondary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/55171\/","title":{"rendered":"49ers news: Robert Saleh reveals sleeper candidate to start in secondary"},"content":{"rendered":"

The San Francisco 49ers<\/a> are right in the middle of training camp, as battles for starting roles have begun.<\/p>\n

With a younger roster, there\u2019s less certainty with the team this offseason, which means more spots are available to grab heading into the preseason. One of those spots is the third cornerback behind starters Deommodore Lenoir and Renardo Green.<\/p>\n

The 49ers didn\u2019t make many notable moves this offseason, especially in free agency, but they did add former Seattle Seahawks<\/a> cornerback Tre Brown on a one-year, $1.7 million deal.<\/p>\n

That contract doesn\u2019t guarantee Brown any roster spot, but the veteran cornerback has reportedly been working primarily with the first-team defense, seeing time in the nickel and the outside.<\/p>\n

However, third-round rookie Upton Stout is on his tail, looking to earn the nickel spot in his first year with the team. And defensive coordinator Robert Saleh is taking notice, while pointing out that the third cornerback spot is \u2018wide open\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cUpton, he is a straining, scrappy young man,\u201d Saleh said on Friday. \u201cDon\u2019t fall asleep on his size. The guy plays way bigger than he is, and way bigger than he looks. He\u2019s got a violence to him. He\u2019s got a violence to his demeanor. So, he\u2019s coming along really well, too, in that regard.\u201d<\/p>\n

That followed head coach Kyle Shanahan\u2019s comments on Stout from earlier in the week, acknowledging the hope for him taking over as the team\u2019s nickelback.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were hoping he would be capable of that when we took him,\u201d Shanahan said Thursday. \u201cWe knew that was a position that was open for us. He looked really good in OTAs, and he has looked the same here in these first two weeks.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, not crowning him yet, but so far, he has been doing a hell of a job, and hopefully, he can keep getting better at it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stout\u2019s physicality and athleticism were factors that stood out as a prospect leading into the NFL Draft<\/a>. NFL Network\u2019s Lance Zierlein had the following to say about the Western Kentucky product ahead of the draft:<\/p>\n

\u201cAn undersized cornerback who spent much of his time playing wide corner, Stout has the twitch and athleticism to project inside,\u201d Zierlein wrote. \u201cWhat he lacks in length he makes up for with his competitiveness. He\u2019s a natural pattern reader with the hips and feet to match breaks without giving up much separation. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere are times he fails to trust his cover talent, holding and grabbing without cause. He\u2019s fairly instinctive and has the short-area burst to squeeze throwing windows. Stout\u2019s physical profile could hurt his draft standing, but the determination and athleticism will be hard to ignore.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 49ers have prepared well for the future at the cornerback position over the last few years. They prioritized an extension with Deommodore Lenoir, getting him under contract for the next five years. Then, to account for Charvarius Ward\u2019s expected departure in free agency, they drafted Renardo Green in the second round of the 2024 NFL Draft.<\/p>\n

Now, Stout could be the third part of that plan, giving the 49ers a young core to work with for the foreseeable future. His first step is winning the nickel job coming out of camp, with the competition being wide open.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The San Francisco 49ers are right in the middle of training camp, as battles for starting roles have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":55172,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[5015,2734,424,417,2744,3,349,2743,26066,411,41771,2745,34181,41772,99,5751,826],"class_list":["post-55171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-candidate","tag-ers","tag-front-page","tag-in","tag-nation","tag-news","tag-nfl","tag-niners","tag-reveals","tag-robert","tag-saleh","tag-san-francisco-49ers-news","tag-secondary","tag-sleeper","tag-sports","tag-start","tag-to"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55171"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55171\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}