The San Francisco 49ers haven't finalized the cornerback lineup yet. Ambry Thomas started on the outside in Saturday's preseason game against the Denver Broncos. Deommodore Lenoir took over the nickel cornerback spot.
Everything remains a work in progress as Kyle Shanahan and his coaching staff seek to identify both the starter across from Charvarius Ward and who will man the slot position.
"We just wanted to get a look at [Lenoir] inside," Shanahan told reporters on Sunday via a conference call. "We worked him that way in practice this week. He did a good job of it, and it's three days of it, and we wanted to give him some reps in the game."
Shanahan added, "He did good. I think he only had about five reps of it, so it wasn't too much. We'll see. I'm sure he'll get a little bit more this week, but, like we've been saying, we're just trying to find our best three, and we think we've got a number of options, so we're trying a number of things out."
Thomas was among the lowest-graded players in the game, per Pro Football Focus. The cornerback was credited as allowing a 50-yard catch on his two targets. How did the coach assess his performance against the Broncos?
"He did a good job," Shanahan said. "I mean, he got that double move at the end, which to me is a little bit more situational awareness. It ended up not hurting us because I think it was [S] Ji'Ayir [Brown] who did a hell of a job rallying to it and stopping him on the one-yard line right before the half ended. But besides that play, I thought he played pretty good."
Thomas is attempting to rebound from last season when he was limited to 41 defensive snaps and did not start a game. It was a significant drop-off from his rookie season when he started five regular-season and two playoff games.
"Sometimes guys have, no matter what you tell guys, if they end up getting in roles, for whatever reason, as rookies, and starting going to the playoffs, things like that, sometimes guys miss really how hard it is to play in this league," Shanahan shared. "And I think that happened to Ambry, and I think he took a step back last year because of that. I think he learned that throughout the year.
"And I think the main thing you realize is, how do they come back to the season in year three? And usually, you know if they got it. If someone doesn't play as much in year two, and they come back in the offseason in year three, and they're still not ready to go, it's like, 'All right. They didn't even learn their lesson. I've got to point this out to them.' And rarely does it work out that way.
"Ambry came back in phase one, ready to go. I thought he was better in OTAs this year than he's been at any time since he's been here, and that's carried over right into training camp. So I say it started in phase one."