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PFF Ranks Charvarius Ward the NFL's 3rd Best Cornerback

Each week, Ward covers the opponent's no. 1 receiver and shuts him down. And yet he never has been an All Pro.

Grant Cohn

Jan 28, 2024; Santa Clara, California, USA; Detroit Lions wide receiver Jameson Williams (9) talks with San Francisco 49ers cornerback Charvarius Ward (7) during the first half of the NFC Championship football game at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports
Jan 28, 2024; Santa Clara, California, USA; Detroit Lions wide receiver Jameson Williams (9) talks with San Francisco 49ers cornerback Charvarius Ward (7) during the first half of the NFC Championship football game at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports / Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports
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One of the most underrated players on the 49ers is cornerback Charvarius Ward.

Each week, he covers the opponent's no. 1 receiver and shuts him down. And yet he never has been an All Pro. But according to Pro Football Focus, he's the third-best cornerback in the NFL behind Sauce Gardner and Trent McDuffie.

"Ward seems to get lost in the debate when it comes to naming the best cornerbacks in the NFL, but he’s quietly put up the third-best coverage grade over the past two years (88.5)," writes PFF analyst John Cosko. "Perhaps it’s the overall strength of the 49ers team, the number of other superstars who overshadow him or the fact he plays on the West Coast, but Ward deserves more praise as one of the league's best corners — he has locked down receivers in coverage since arriving in the Bay Area."

In 2023, the strength of the 49ers' defense largely was Ward, considering Talanoa Hufanga tore his ACL, their pass rush ranked 20th in sack percentage and their run defense ranked 14th in yards per carry allowed. And yet, they still gave up the third-fewest points in the league partially because Ward is a shutdown corner who can shadow the opponent's best receiver all around the formation.

Ward is scheduled to be a free agent next year and the 49ers haven't yet offered him an extension. If they were shrewd, they'd extend him right now, because his price tag will increase dramatically if he has another elite season in 2024.

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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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