- Joined
- May 8, 2002
- Posts
- 1,245,826
- Reaction score
- 59
San Francisco 49ers cornerback Deommodore Lenoir isn't spending his summer scouting the rest of the NFC West. With the Los Angeles Rams and Seattle Seahawks both making waves as top Super Bowl contenders, Lenoir said the noise around those two teams isn't registering in the building.
"We're not really focused on them," Lenoir said on KNBR. "We just worried about ourselves. The only person that can beat the Niners is the Niners."
Now in his sixth NFL season and one of San Francisco's team captains, he stepped into a larger leadership role last year after Nick Bosa and Fred Warner both went down with injuries, and he's carried that same internal-focused mindset into this camp. Rather than track what Seattle or Los Angeles is doing on paper, Lenoir said his attention has been on his own game — training through the offseason with what he called a chip on his shoulder.
"I trained the majority of this offseason," Lenoir said. "I kind of got something to prove... that I'm the best in the league."
That approach extends to how he's talked about the rest of the roster this camp, too. Lenoir has pointed to the return of Dre Greenlaw and Deebo Samuel, along with the development of young defensive backs like Upton Stout and Renardo Green, as reasons the 49ers don't need to fixate on outside opponents to find motivation. With Bosa and Warner back healthy after missing significant time last season, San Francisco's message under new defensive coordinator Raheem Morris has centered on raising its own standard rather than reacting to what division rivals are doing.
It's a familiar message in NFL locker rooms, but for a team that has lost playoff heartbreakers to both the Rams and Seahawks in recent seasons — including Seattle's win at Levi's Stadium that helped decide last year's division race — Lenoir's answer doubles as a statement of where the 49ers believe their season will actually be won or lost: on their own operation, not the opposition's.
This article originally appeared on Niners Wire: 49ers CB says SF 'not really focused' on Rams, Seahawks entering 2026
Continue reading...
"We're not really focused on them," Lenoir said on KNBR. "We just worried about ourselves. The only person that can beat the Niners is the Niners."
Now in his sixth NFL season and one of San Francisco's team captains, he stepped into a larger leadership role last year after Nick Bosa and Fred Warner both went down with injuries, and he's carried that same internal-focused mindset into this camp. Rather than track what Seattle or Los Angeles is doing on paper, Lenoir said his attention has been on his own game — training through the offseason with what he called a chip on his shoulder.
"I trained the majority of this offseason," Lenoir said. "I kind of got something to prove... that I'm the best in the league."
That approach extends to how he's talked about the rest of the roster this camp, too. Lenoir has pointed to the return of Dre Greenlaw and Deebo Samuel, along with the development of young defensive backs like Upton Stout and Renardo Green, as reasons the 49ers don't need to fixate on outside opponents to find motivation. With Bosa and Warner back healthy after missing significant time last season, San Francisco's message under new defensive coordinator Raheem Morris has centered on raising its own standard rather than reacting to what division rivals are doing.
It's a familiar message in NFL locker rooms, but for a team that has lost playoff heartbreakers to both the Rams and Seahawks in recent seasons — including Seattle's win at Levi's Stadium that helped decide last year's division race — Lenoir's answer doubles as a statement of where the 49ers believe their season will actually be won or lost: on their own operation, not the opposition's.
This article originally appeared on Niners Wire: 49ers CB says SF 'not really focused' on Rams, Seahawks entering 2026
Continue reading...
