How ‘baller’ Lenoir is making presence felt in 49ers training camp

How ‘baller’ Lenoir is making presence felt in 49ers training camp originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

SANTA CLARA — The 49ers have an abundance of superstar players, but one name that continues to outshine most of them in training camp is fourth-year cornerback Deommodore Lenoir.

Lenoir was mostly a rotational corner for the first season-plus of his career before earning a more consistent role in the second half of the 2022 NFL season. The 24-year-old then started all 17 games for San Francisco last season and split time between nickel and outside corner positions.

Now entering his fourth season, Lenoir has been the talk of camp thus far and his versatility and dedication to his craft have earned him countless praise from coaches and teammates.

“I think he’s been solid. I think being able to go inside [and] outside he’s taken that next step,” defensive coordinator Nick Sorensen said Sunday. “Another year of just being comfortable and being able to see it. I’ve said in the past, it’s tough to do that within the game, play inside and play outside.

“I think it’s just clicking that much faster. It’s like anything, time on task he just continues to get better in both spots because he’s playing both spots.”

Lenoir’s talent was clear immediately after the 49ers selected him in the fifth round of the 2021 NFL Draft, but as is the case with any young defensive back — let alone one who plays all over the field like Lenoir — the learning curve was steep. There were times when over-thinking and the mental hurdles Lenoir faced got in the way of his progress.

“That’s it, that’s really it. Really anybody, how fast can you get away from thinking about everything to where you’re anticipating and just reacting,” Sorensen added. “That’s really the main goal of anyone.”

Quarterback Brock Purdy has struggled to keep the ball out of the defense’s hands so far in training camp, and one of the culprits who has snagged an interception (a pick six) from the third-year signal caller and continues to make his presence felt in the secondary is Lenoir.

“He’s a baller, man. He’s got good ball instincts and he understands football well,” Purdy shared. “He’s got more and more reps obviously as his career’s gone on. And for us, every time we walk up to the line and I see him in man coverage I’m like ‘this is going to be a battle here.’ So he pushes our guys, he pushes me, I’ve got to be accurate with the ball because he’s going to be on the back hip pretty tightly and he’s made some pretty good plays.”

If the 2024 NFL season started today, Lenoir’s role on paper wouldn’t change much as the starting nickel alongside outside corners Charvarius Ward and Ambry Thomas, but instead of being the rising, young star turning heads in San Francisco’s defensive backfield, Lenoir now is an established veteran presence and could make the leap to one of the league’s better overall defensive backs this season.

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