About the only memory San Francisco 49ers fans may have of cornerback Chase Lucas is the sideline spat he had with his now-teammate, Deommodore Lenoir, during the 2024 NFC Championship game when the former was witih the Detroit Lions.
So, it's still a bit ironic the Niners inked Lucas as a free agent the following offseason, making for what had to be an intriguing make-up session thereafter with Lenoir in the defensive back room.
Yet Lucas didn't see the field for San Francisco during the regular season, spending all of 2024 on the practice squad after his previous two years in Detroit.
If he expects that to change, Lucas will have to find other ways to deliver, and the context for doing so might not be too easy.
Chase Lucas must ride special teams experience to stay with 49ers
Combing through the 5-foot-11, 184-pound defensive back's pro-level experience, Lucas has almost exclusively been a special teams ace, seeing only six defensive snaps his rookie 2022 season and none the year after. Yet he was a key special teams contributor in 2023, playing a total of 230 third-phase snaps over the course of 12 regular-season games.
Now, it's important to recognize Lucas inked a reserve/future deal with the 49ers last January, prior to the hiring of special teams coordinator Brant Boyer, meaning Boyer inherited Lucas instead of hand-picking him, as he did with many of the Niners' opening free-agent additions.
It's a crowded bunch, too, especially at cornerback. Toward the back end of the depth chart, Lucas is competing with the likes of Tre Brown, Tre Avery, Derrick Canteen, Dallis Flowers, Darrell Luter Jr., Siran Neal and even rookies Jakob Robinson and Upton Stout for positioning on the roster.
So, any exceptional special teams prowess will go a long way.
Should the Niners not feel Lucas is worth the addition, he can be removed with zero in dead-cap hit, which points to the defensive back being on the weaker side of the roster bubble.
Impressing Boyer, however, would do wonders for Lucas' roster chances, though.
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