The Next Gen Stats Analytics team recently ranked the top 10 shutdown cornerbacks of the 2025 NFL season, and San Francisco 49ers defensive back Deommodore Lenoir earned a spot among the league's elite. Lenoir came in at No. 5 overall with an 87 shutdown cornerback score, trailing only Patrick Surtain II, Trent McDuffie, Quinyon Mitchell, and Sauce Gardner.
"Lenoir crafted his 'Hyena' nickname to stand out as unique among his NFL peers, but contrary to his moniker, he has quietly dominated receivers with effective play," the analytics team wrote.
Since taking over as the 49ers' top corner following Charvarius Ward's offseason departure, Lenoir has delivered standout production that rivals the NFL's best. Here's a look at his key metrics this season:
- Has allowed the second-fewest yards per coverage snap (0.5) among cornerbacks with 100+ coverage snaps.
- Has spent the seventh-most time in tight coverage (109.3 seconds) this season.
- On 10 targets beyond 16 air yards, he has not allowed a single completion.
- His 11.6% target rate ranks 12th-lowest among 104 cornerbacks with 100+ coverage snaps. That's an improvement from 2024 (18.4%), when he frequently played in the nickel spot.
- Since the start of 2024, he has allowed only one touchdown on 124 targets. No other cornerback with 120+ targets has allowed fewer than four since then.
- His 5.6 yards per target is the lowest among all cornerbacks with 120+ targets.
On Sunday against the Houston Texans, Lenoir hauled in an interception, snapping an interception-less streak that spanned an NFL-record 14 games. However, Lenoir made the mistake of not going down or getting out of bounds, which could have set up a field goal to end the first half.
"It was really just I was trying to score," Lenoir said. "I should have slid. I wasn't aware how much time was left on the clock, but I just (saw) the end zone and I was trying to score (and) put us in a good position to be able to win the game."
With his strong coverage metrics and unwavering confidence, Lenoir continues to prove himself to be one of the NFL's premier cornerbacks.
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