The 49ers are 5-0, and while Brock Purdy is grabbing most of the spotlight, another San Francisco defender has forced his way into the conversation: Renardo Green.
Green has gone from a shaky rookie season to the 49ers’ breakout player of the year so far, and his Week 5 showing against the Seattle Seahawks was the clearest sign yet. He intercepted Sam Darnold twice, which was the first multi-interception game of his career. The first one stood out most because it came while he was matched up with Jaxson Smith-Njigba.
That’s not an easy assignment for any corner, even if the route itself wasn’t especially complicated. Green, though, handled it. And his season numbers show this isn’t just a one-game surge.
Through five games, Green has been targeted 21 times and allowed a 52.4% completion rate, which is a career low and the lowest among 49ers cornerbacks, per Next Gen Stats. He already has five passes defended, which is a career high through the first five games of a season, and his three interceptions are the first time he has ever reached multiple picks in a year.
He also owns a 23.8% ball hawk rate, the best of his career and the best on the team among cornerbacks. On top of that, he’s the only 49ers cornerback who hasn’t allowed a passing touchdown this season.
It’s enough to make a strong case that Green has been San Francisco’s best defensive back this year, even ahead of Deommodore Lenoir. Raheem Morris deserves credit for helping unlock him, but Kyle Shanahan also pointed to the work Green put in before the season even got rolling.
"The way Renardo came to day one of Phase One, you could tell that he had put work in away, which prepared him so much more for the month that we got with him," Kyle Shanahan said. "He had an awesome Phase One, Two and Three... You could tell he'd been working all year and really locked in to getting better at everything."
From offseason trade rumors to Pro Bowl-level production, Green has completely changed the conversation around him. If he keeps this going, an All-Pro case won’t sound far-fetched at all.
In Other News...
Shanahan Just Made Monday Night About More Than Beating Washington
Kyle Shanahans relationship with Dan Quinn goes back to their Atlanta days, when Shanahan served as offensive coordinator under Quinn in 2015 and 2016. As the 49ers prepare to visit Washington on Monday night, Shanahan said the biggest lessons from that stretch went beyond the playbook, with Quinn putting real weight on how a team talks to one another and builds its identity.
That perspective adds another layer to a matchup that already looks lopsided on paper, with San Francisco leading the NFL in point differential and Washington sitting at 1-3-1. It is also a reunion with a coach Shanahan knows well, only now Quinn is guiding the Commanders, which gives this one a little more history than your average cross-country trip. [Read more 🡒]
49ers Get An Early Edge As Commanders Backfield Suddenly Thins
The 49ers got an early break in the lead-up to their meeting with Washington, as the Commanders backfield took a hit before the matchup even arrived. Jacory Croskey-Merritt, the rookie who has given Washington a useful spark this season with 239 rushing yards and two touchdowns, has been ruled out because of a groin injury, trimming one of the more intriguing pieces of the Commanders run game.
Washington still has options, of course, with Rachaad White and Austin Ekeler expected to carry more of the load. The bigger question now is how the Commanders fill out the rest of that group for game day, and whether the added uncertainty forces them to shuffle more than they would like before facing a 49ers defense that will already be focused on controlling the line of scrimmage. [Read more 🡒]
George Kittles Seahawks Admission Should Worry 49ers Fans
George Kittles Week 5 outing against the Seahawks came with a backdrop the 49ers probably would have preferred to avoid. The tight end said he was fighting an illness in the lead-up to the game, and it showed in how he felt physically even as he stayed on the field and helped San Francisco get past Seattle. Kittle still managed five catches for 24 yards, but the bigger takeaway was that he was operating well below his usual level.
Kittle also said the extra time in the schedule before the 49ers face the Commanders is coming at the right moment. After dealing with weakness and the lingering effects of the illness, getting a little more recovery time should help, especially for a player whose workload and presence matter so much to the offense. For San Francisco, the concern is less about one quiet stat line than about how quickly Kittle can get back to being himself. [Read more 🡒]