49ers cut former first-round draft pick who played in just one game for San Francisco

By John Breech

Like all NFL teams, the 49ers have to have their roster down to 85 players by Tuesday at 4 p.m. ET and they started that process one day early by making a surprising cut.

The team announced on Monday that it has released Darqueze Dennard, who was in a competition to be the team’s starting nickel back. Dennard is a former first-round pick who was selected 24th overall by the Bengals in 2014. After six seasons in Cincinnati, Dennard moved on to Atlanta for the 2020 season before jumping ship to the Giants in 2021.

After being released by the Giants in December, the 49ers quickly picked him up and even though he was only with the team for the final two weeks of the season, he did crack the roster for one game, playing in San Francisco’s regular season finale against the Rams.

The 49ers were impressed enough during that one game that they ended up signing Dennard to a one-year deal in March.

When the 49ers released their first depth chart of training camp back on Aug. 9, Dennard was listed as the starting nickel back. Dennard’s spot on the team seemed so safe that as recently as Sunday night, 49ers defensive coordinator DeMeco Ryans was actually asked at his press conference if he was “pretty set” with Dennard as the starting nickel.

“Everybody is competing. And that’s everywhere, every position,” Ryans said, via quotes distributed by the team. “Everybody is competing for a starting job. And everybody, like I said earlier, guys have to show us. They have to earn the right to go out there with our group. And everybody is in that same boat.”

That definitely wasn’t a vote of confidence for Dennard, who was cut less than 24 hours after Ryans’ interview.

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