The San Francisco 49ers are going into next season with a whole new look. Plenty of players were moved or left in free agency. Couple that with the Niners drafting 11 players, and fans now have what looks like completely new squad taking the field in 2025.
But, there are a few players who are going into their second season, and they’re looking to make a bigger impact for San Francisco.
In this list, we’ll talk three second-year players on the 49ers roster who are looking to take the next step. They’ve already shown flashes of what they can do in their first year.
Now, it’s time to see if they can be bigger contributors. Or even franchise cornerstones.
No. 1: Cornerback Renardo Green
Cornerback Renardo Green made a big impact last year in spurts on the defense. The former Seminole led the team with 13 pass deflections, and he came away with one pick and one forced fumble.
Out of Green’s 675 snaps, roughly 87 percent of his time was spent lined up out wide in coverage. And with his 74.3 Pro Football Focus coverage grade (19th in the league), he will fit perfectly lining up opposite Deommodore Lenoir.
It also comes as 2023 Pro Bowler, Charvarius Ward, moved on to the Indianapolis Colts in free agency. It’s one of many pieces to the 2023 Niners that helped them get back to the Super Bowl.
Now, Green will likely be taking over in this position to continue to help San Francisco’s pass coverage.
One area Green will need to improve is with his run defense. His PFF run defense grade is 46.9, which puts him in the bottom 10 of the league. It’s one area Ward found a great amount of success in as one of the top run defenders at cornerback.
If Green can improve his support in the run game while building off of what he did last year in coverge, then the sky is the limit for what he can do in year two.
No. 2: Safety Malik Mustapha
Second-year safety, Malik Mustapha found himself jumping in with the starters in his first year. It came after the All-Pro starter, Talanoa Hufanga, spent most of 2024 injured. Now that Hufanga signed with the Denver Broncos in free agency, Mustapha will likely find himself in the same role. And he had a great start to his career that he has a chance to build off of.
Granted, Mustapha suffered a torn ACL in San Francisco’s regular-season finale last season, so his status for the beginning of 2025 is in doubt.
But, when he does return, there’s a lot to positively anticipate.
The former Demon Deacon showed plenty of promise as a “jack of all trades” type of player. A majority of his snaps were while he played as a deep safety. But according to PFF, he recorded nearly a quarter of his snaps in the box, which gives the 49ers a helping hand in a few different ways.
The Niners have some young potential starters at the safety position, including Mustapha. One includes Penn State product, Ji’Ayir Brown, who is going into his third season. After a strong rookie season from Brown, he had a bit of a sophomore slump, but one area that still stayed productive was in coverage. Especially as someone who could line up at safety or at the nickel corner position. The 49ers can use Mustapha and Brown interchangeably to have Brown either playing in the slot while Mustapha plays coverage up top. Or they could move Brown up top whenever they want Mustapha to help stack the box.
Mustapha does have some areas to improve, but he has plenty of potential to be a Swiss Army knife for the Niners in year two.
No. 3: Running back Isaac Guerendo
Running back Isaac Guerendo put up 420 rushing yards and four rushing touchdowns. He also added 152 receiving yards off of 15 catches. He was used in a serviceable role as the 49ers running back room was banged up for most of 2024, including All-Pro Christian McCaffrey only playing four games and Jordan Mason taking most of the carries throughout last season before suffering his own injury.
Now, McCaffrey looks to be heading into 2025 healthy — after dealing with the Madden Curse — and it’s almost a guarantee he won’t lose the starting spot for the 49ers for years. As for Mason, he’s in Minnesota now with the Vikings after an offseason trade.
So now, more opportunity for Guerendo to take over and showcase more of his talents.
Guerendo is a strong downhill runner who served very well as someone who could help close out a game. This is the same role that gave Mason a lot of time on the field in head coach Kyle Shanahan’s run game. Although Guerendo won’t impress with what he can do as a receiver or a pass protector, he has plenty of talent to get tough yardage late in games.
The backup spot behind McCaffrey isn’t guaranteed for Guerendo. Mainly because Shanahan picked Oregon standout running back Jordan James in the fifth round of last April’s draft to potentially fill this role.
However, if there’s one thing Shanahan loves to do in his offense, it’s getting the most out of his run game. And it shows with what’s happened backs who were lower on the depth chart like Raheem Mostert, Jeff Wilson, and Mason.
