The San Francisco 49ers didn't draft a cornerback this year, as many expected them to do. That is noteworthy because the team has several key defensive backs entering the final year of their contracts. They are Richard Sherman, Ahkello Witherspoon, Emmanuel Moseley, K'Waun Williams, and Jaquiski Tartt.
All but one of those names, Moseley, are scheduled to become unrestricted free agents. Moseley will be an exclusive-rights free agent.
General manager John Lynch, who joined KNBR on Tuesday, doesn't sound too concerned — for now.
"We're happy there," Lynch said on the Murph and Mac show when asked about the situation in the secondary. "I think a lot of people were thinking corner because past this year, we don't have a lot of players signed at that position. Now, what I'll tell you is Richard Sherman played at an incredibly high level. Richard's to the age where kind of the year-to-year thing works for him. We're going to go let him play this year, and we'll see where that goes.
"Emmanuel Moseley is a guy who played extremely well. I don't think we're in the Super Bowl without Emmanuel Moseley.
"It's a huge year for Ahkello Witherspoon. He's going into that last year of his rookie deal, and Ahkello has flashed, at times. He consistently needs to go do it this year. The great thing is he has it in his body to do so.
"Tim Harris is a guy we drafted last year, went on injured reserve. I'm naming a lot of guys. Jason Verrett's there, and that didn't go well last year, but he rehabbed extremely well. We signed him on a year deal, a little risk for us."
Lynch is well-aware that defensive back decisions are looming, but it looks like the current group is the one with which the 49ers will enter the 2020 season. The unit, thanks in part to a strong pass rush, ranked No. 1 against the pass while allowing just 169.2 passing yards per game. The defense as a whole allowed the second-fewest total yards per game.
"So we've got candidates there, and we felt comfortable," Lynch continued. "We felt like there were other areas of our team that we wanted to address at the given time. We feel good about that. Obviously, in the future, that's something we are going to have to address."
You can listen to the entire conversation with Lynch below.
