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49ers CB Deommodore Lenoir Says He has Vikings QB Sam Darnold's Number

"Me and Sam, we have this connection. He likes to throw the ball to me."

Grant Cohn

Feb 6, 2024; Las Vegas, NV, USA; San Francisco 49ers cornerback Deommodore Lenoir (2) during a press conference before Super Bowl LVIII at the Hilton Lake Las Vegas Resort. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images
Feb 6, 2024; Las Vegas, NV, USA; San Francisco 49ers cornerback Deommodore Lenoir (2) during a press conference before Super Bowl LVIII at the Hilton Lake Las Vegas Resort. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images / Kirby Lee-Imagn Images
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SANTA CLARA -- San Francisco 49ers cornerback Deommodore Lenoir was asked about Minnesota Vikings quarterback Sam Darnold on Thursday. Here's what Lenoir said.

Q: You faced Sam Darnold a lot last year in practice, so he knows you and you know him. Who wins that matchup?

LENOIR: "I believe I'll win because me and Sam, we have this connection. He likes to throw the ball to me. This week, I'm coming and he knows it. I know he's a talented player and he's going to come ready to work. I know how he prepares. He gave us great looks when he played here with us. Just taking over the scout team, he was throwing dimes. So I know it's going to have to be tight, sticky coverage."

Q: Do you always feel this confident?

LENOIR: "I'm always picking up on the small details. Even when they think I don't know, I figure out where the ball is going and what they like to do."

Q: Did Brock Purdy not have that connection with you when he was the scout team quarterback?

LENOIR: "No, he didn't. He was actually throwing dimes. So that's why I respected him. I respected him because he was throwing the pill. I would get him sometimes, but he would throw a ball and I would be like, 'Wow.'"

Q: So was it a surprise to you when he first went out there?

LENOIR: "It was no surprise. If he throws dimes against the no. 1 defense. If he gets out there with some scrubs, he's going to look like a Hall of Famer."

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Grant Cohn
GRANT COHN

Grant Cohn has covered the San Francisco 49ers daily since 2011. He spent the first nine years of his career with the Santa Rosa Press Democrat where he wrote the Inside the 49ers blog and covered famous coaches and athletes such as Jim Harbaugh, Colin Kaepernick and Patrick Willis. In 2012, Inside the 49ers won Sports Blog of the Year from the Peninsula Press Club. In 2020, Cohn joined FanNation and began writing All49ers. In addition, he created a YouTube channel which has become the go-to place on YouTube to consume 49ers content. Cohn's channel typically generates roughly 3.5 million viewers per month, while the 49ers' official YouTube channel generates roughly 1.5 million viewers per month. Cohn live streams almost every day and posts videos hourly during the football season. Cohn is committed to asking the questions that 49ers fans want answered, and providing the most honest and interactive coverage in the country. His loyalty is to the reader and the viewer, not the team or any player or coach. Cohn is a new-age multimedia journalist with an old-school mentality, because his father is Lowell Cohn, the legendary sports columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1979 to 1993. The two have a live podcast every Tuesday. Grant Cohn grew up in Oakland and studied English Literature at UCLA from 2006 to 2010. He currently lives in Oakland with his wife.

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