San Francisco 49ers Week 3 Stock Report

One San Francisco 49ers player whose stock is down: second-year cornerback Kenneth Acker.

Acker missed his rookie season with a broken foot and started this offseason at the bottom of the depth chart. No one expected him to start back in May.

But he was arguably the 49ers’ best cornerback during training camp and the preseason. He rarely gave up a catch and seemed more physical than the other Niners cornerbacks.

Apparently, the rest of the NFL wasn’t impressed. The first two weeks of the season, opposing offenses have gone after Acker as if he’s the defense's weakest link. And he may be. He has been targeted 11 times and given up nine catches for 144 yards, according to Pro Football Focus.

Acker doesn’t seem ready to start in the NFL—he’s still learning. The Niners may have to bench him and promote veteran corner Shareece Wright to the starting lineup.

Here are Week 3 stock reports for five more 49ers.

Stock Down: OLB Ahmad Brooks

Gene J. Puskar/Associated Press

If cornerback Kenneth Acker is the weakest link on the 49ers defense, outside linebacker Ahmad Brooks may be the second-weakest link.

Brooks was absolutely abysmal Week 2 against the Pittsburgh Steelers. He recorded no sacks, quarterback hits or hurries, according to Pro Football Focus. Brooks got shut out.

And he played poorly against the run as well. Pro Football Focus gave Brooks a minus-1.3 run-defense grade against the Steelers. He made just two tackles.

Brooks played poorly last season, but he had an excuse. He was out of shape. This year, he’s supposed to be in shape—he attended the entire offseason training program, including OTAs and minicamp. What’s his excuse?

Maybe he’s just old. He’s 31 and not nearly as explosive as he was a few years ago. It may be just a matter of weeks until rookie outside linebacker Eli Harold takes his job.

Stock Up: WR Torrey Smith

Don Wright/Associated Press

Quarterback Colin Kaepernick and wide receiver Torrey Smith still haven’t connected on a deep pass down the sideline, but they’re connecting nonetheless.

They connected twice for scores Sunday against the Steelers. First, Smith caught a pass over the middle, broke one tackle and sprinted past the Steelers defense all the way to the end zone for the touchdown. He looked like former 49ers great John Taylor.

Later, Smith jumped and caught a fade pass over a cornerback in the end zone to convert a two-point attempt.

People think of Smith as a deep threat, but he’s also a red-zone threat—he showed that day after day in training camp. Maybe the Niners would have won the Super Bowl if Kaepernick could have thrown those fade passes at the end of the game to Torrey Smith instead of Michael Crabtree.

Stock Down: C Marcus Martin

Ben Margot/Associated Press

With the 70th pick in the 2014 draft, the 49ers took guard/center Marcus Martin over some excellent players, such as Oakland Raiders guard Gabe Jackson, currently the third-highest rated guard on Pro Football Focus with a grade of plus-6.0.

Martin was supposed to be more versatile than Jackson, who’s just a guard. Martin plays center and guard. Unfortunately, he struggles at both positions.

He started the offseason at right guard, a position he hadn’t played since high school. The Niners ended that experiment after a few weeks and moved Martin back to center.

Through two games, Martin has earned a minus-4.5 grade from Pro Football Focus. He is one of the league's worst starting centers—a liability in the running game and the passing game.

He seems like a bust.

Stock Up: QB Colin Kaepernick

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Colin Kaepernick earned a plus-7.4 passing grade from Pro Football Focus Week 2—the highest passing grade in the NFL, even higher than Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger’s.

In the second half Sunday afternoon, Kaepernick caught fire, finding receivers the Steelers left wide-open downfield and hitting the short slant routes with precision and accuracy.

Sure, the short slants were available to Kaepernick because he was losing by more than 20 points in the fourth quarter, and Pittsburgh was guarding against big plays.

But give Kaepernick credit for taking what the defense gave him. Also give him credit for making two flat-out great throws—both to Torrey Smith.

The first great throw came on the first third down the Niners faced. It was 3rd-and-11. Kaepernick dropped back, sensed pressure while looking downfield, slid to his left and threw a rope to Smith for a first down.

Later, Kaepernick threw a perfect pass down the middle of the field to Smith, who caught the ball, turned upfield and scored without breaking stride. Kaepernick’s accuracy made the play.

Let’s see if Kaepernick makes those throws next week against the Arizona Cardinals. They have a much-better secondary than the Steelers.

Stock Down: FS Eric Reid

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Free safety Eric Reid made one of the worst plays of Week 2.

Along with cornerback Kenneth Acker, Reid was double-covering Steelers No. 1 wide receiver Antonio Brown while Brown was running deep down the sideline. Roethlisberger threw the ball to Brown, even though he was double-covered.

Reid was in perfect position to intercept the pass, but misjudged the flight of the ball and let Brown run right past him to make the catch. Gain of 59 yards.

Through the first-two weeks of the season, Reid ranks 64th among NFL safeties, according to Pro Football Focus, which would make him one of the NFL's worst starting safeties.

Reid made the Pro Bowl his rookie season primarily as a deep zone defender. This season, new defensive coordinator Eric Mangini is using Reid in all kinds of ways, such as lining him up in the box. Mangini may need to rethink that one.

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