SANTA CLARA – Emmanuel Moseley earned his promotion at the midpoint of last season. His first NFL regular season consisted entirely of three plays on special teams.
After receiving his promotion from the practice squad four hours before kickoff of the 49ers' Week 9 game last season against the Raiders, Moseley sustained a season-ending dislocated shoulder on his third play of special teams. And just like that, his season was over.
“I wish he’d gotten a chance to play last year because then people would not be as panicked as they are right now,” 49ers veteran cornerback Richard Sherman said of Moseley.
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Starting right cornerback Ahkello Witherspoon is expected to miss at least a month with a foot sprain. Jason Verrett is back on injured reserve with a knee condition. Moseley gets the call to make his first NFL start, facing Odell Beckham, Jarvis Landry and the Cleveland Browns on Monday night at Levi’s Stadium.
“I think any competitor would enjoy that, being the underdog and going out and proving yourself,” said Moseley, who entered the NFL in 2018 as an undrafted rookie from Tennessee.
Moseley did not make the 49ers’ initial 53-man roster, but he was a hot commodity on the team’s practice squad.
The 49ers after Week 5 of last year increased Moseley’s weekly pay to more than $28,000 – approximately four times the minimum salary for a player practice squad -- when other teams were interested in signing him to their active rosters.
San Francisco 49ers
Three weeks later, the 49ers made the promotion that lasted just three plays.
Still, Moseley said his rookie season served as a useful purpose, as he learned from Sherman and Witherspoon and the coaching staff to increase his knowledge of the NFL game.
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Moseley (5-foot-11, 190 pounds) does not have the size of the prototypical cornerbacks in the 49ers' three-deep scheme. But Sherman said he believes Moseley is ready for the challenge of immediately facing some of the top wide receivers in the game.
“It’s all of it,” Sherman said. “It’s his feistiness. It’s his decision-making. It’s his presence, his confidence. It’s his movement, his ability to move, his lateral quickness, his straight-line speed. He’d honestly tell you he’s probably the fastest one on the team, and he knows Marquise (Goodwin) is on the team. You can appreciate that.
“He’s a guy that can play this game at a high level, and I don’t think he’s going to shy away from any challenge.”