AUGUST 23: The ninth-year cornerback will indeed miss at least the 49ers’ first four games this season. Verrett landed on the 49ers’ reserve/PUP list Tuesday. GM John Lynch said (via NBC Sports Bay Area’s Matt Maiocco, on Twitter) Verrett has not endured any setbacks in his recovery from an ACL tear. Given Verrett’s extensive injury history, it is unsurprising the 49ers are proceeding with caution here.

AUGUST 10: Despite having made a good case to be labeled the NFL’s most injury-prone active player, Jason Verrett has continued to receive opportunities. The 49ers have now given the former first-round pick three contracts.

Verrett, now 31, is on the team’s active/PUP list. While the ninth-year cornerback is aiming to begin the season on time, Kyle Shanahan cautioned that a past instance of hurrying back from injury proved costly. In 2019, Verrett was coming off an Achilles tear and a preseason ankle injury. He returned in Week 3 but played just four snaps. That turned out to be Verrett’s only action all season.

“If he comes back Week 1, Week 4, Week 8, the end of the year — everyone knows how talented a player he is,” Shanahan said, via The Athletic’s Matt Barrows (subscription required). “I thought the first year we had him here was similar and I thought we brought him back a hair too early.”

Last season, Verrett went down with a torn ACL in Week 1, marking another September setback. From 2017-21, the former Chargers draftee played more than one game in a season just once. Amid a torrent of 49ers injuries in 2020, Verrett stayed relatively healthy. He played 13 games and was one of the team’s top defenders, leading to one-year, $5.5MM 49ers deal in 2021. Because of Verrett’s latest injury, he signed for the league minimum this year.

The former No. 25 overall pick’s resiliency certainly cannot be questioned. Injuries have wrecked six of the eight seasons he has played. The TCU product has torn both his left and right ACLs as a pro and encountered setbacks in other seasons that led to shutdowns. The two seasons in which Verrett has logged heavy participation — 2015 and ’20 — have ended with a Pro Bowl (2015) and a top-10 Pro Football Focus grade (2020). That has kept the 49ers interested in seeing if Verrett can put it together again. Even considering the numerous chances the 5-foot-10 cover man has received, it is hard not to view 2022 as his last chance.

The 49ers are expected to use Emmanuel Moseley and free agent signing Charvarius Ward as their starting outside cornerbacks, with Darqueze Dennard leading the way to be the team’s slot corner. Verrett returning early in the season, however, would supply San Francisco with strong depth at this position. The 49ers moving him to their reserve/PUP list, mandating a four-game absence, would also make sense considering the extensive injury history in this case.

For the third straight year, the 49ers are signing veteran cornerback Jason Verrett. The team also confirmed that, once again, he is inking a one-year deal. 

Verrett, 30, was a first-round pick of the Chargers in 2014. He flashed potential throughout his time with the team, including a Pro Bowl 2015 campaign. That year, he posted 47 tackles, three interceptions and 12 pass deflections. Injuries have become a major issue during his NFL tenure, however, including a torn Achilles which cost him the entire 2018 season.

That led him to San Francisco on his first one-year flier. An ankle injury limited him to a single game, though. The 49ers took another chance on him one year later, and saw he much more success that time around. In 13 games, the TCU product made a career-high 60 tackles, adding a pair of interceptions along the way. That was rewarded with another one-year deal from the team, as San Francisco looked to keep as much of its secondary intact given the departure of Richard Sherman.

Unfortunately, Verrett’s third season in the Bay Area went much like the first. He suffered a torn ACL during Week 1, leaving him with, essentially, yet another lost season. As a result, this latest deal likely won’t have the $5.5MM maximum value of his last one, though it wouldn’t come as a surprise for it to once again be incentive-laden. At a minimum, he will be able to provide experience to the 49ers’ secondary as they look to make another deep playoff run.

The 49ers are locking up another one of their high profile free agents. San Francisco has agreed to terms to re-sign cornerback Jason Verrett, Josina Anderson of ESPN.com tweets.

It’s a one-year deal with a base value of $5.5MM that has “significant upside” for more, Ian Rapoport of NFL Network tweets. Rapoport later tweeted that it’ll be $6.5MM if he makes the Pro Bowl, and also noted that he turned down a multi-year offer from another team in order to bet on himself again. Given Verrett’s lengthy injury history, it makes sense that San Francisco was looking to do a one-year deal.

Verrett was one of the best stories in the NFL last season, as he was finally able to stay healthy after a brutal run of bad injury luck the previous handful of years. A first-round pick of the Chargers back in 2014, Verrett initially looked like a star in the making and made the Pro Bowl in 2015. Then a torn ACL limited him to four games in 2016. Then another knee injury limited him to only one game in 2017.

A torn Achilles sidelined him for the entire 2018 season, and because of an ankle injury he only played in one game with the 49ers in 2019. Despite only appearing in six games across four seasons from 2016-19, the 49ers brought him back last year and it paid off.

Verrett started 13 games last season, racking up seven passes defended and two interceptions. He played very well, and should be back as a starter in 2021. He’ll be especially important for Kyle Shanahan’s defense with Richard Sherman set to depart in free agency.