Emmanuel Moseley is Playing Like a No. 1 Cornerback

Moseley has allowed just 16 catches on 34 targets (47.1 percent), 214 receiving yards, 0 touchdowns and a quarterback rating of just 67.2.

Grant Cohn | Dec 2, 2021

Emmanuel Moseley deserves recognition.

While most of us have argued about the quarterback position and the direction of the franchise, Moseley quietly has had an excellent season.

He hasn't intercepted any passes, so he's not getting headlines. But according to the SIS Data Hub, Moseley has allowed just 16 catches on 34 targets (47.1 percent), 214 receiving yards, 0 touchdowns and a quarterback rating of just 67.2.

Those are elite numbers.

And he's not expensive. This offseason, the 49ers gave Moseley a modest two-year, $9.3 million extension. Good decision.

The 49ers originally signed Moseley as an undrafted free agent in 2018. That season, he spent most of the year on the practice squad. But in 2019, he started 9 games and gave up a passer rating of just 78. He was a pleasant surprise. But he benefitted big time from a dominant pass rush, plus he blew a coverage on third and 15 in the Super Bowl, which began the Chiefs' dramatic comeback.

In 2020, the pass rush took a step back, and so did Moseley, as he gave up a quarterback rating of 97. He looked like a backup cornerback the 49ers would need to replace.

But they believed in Moseley, they saw the talent in him and committed to him for another two years. This was one of their best moves of the offseason.

Cornerback is a premium position, which means it can be expensive. But Moseley is extremely cheap for a No. 1 cornerback, and he's young -- only 25.

Give the 49ers credit for discovering a developing a quality corner. And give Moseley credit for his stellar play.

Published Dec 2, 2021

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.