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Fooch's Update: Perrish Cox's agent has confirmed the news.
Matt Maiocco and Matt Barrows are both reporting that Perrish Cox has agreed to a 1-year deal to return to the San Francisco 49ers. There are no other details on the contract yet, but odds are pretty good it's for the league minimum with maybe a minor roster or signing bonus. Cox is a 3-year veteran (he sat out 2011), so a veteran minimum salary would be $645,000. There would be no minimum salary benefit that cuts it to a $570,000 cap hit because that requires him being a 4-year veteran.
This marks his third stint with the 49ers. The 49ers initially signed Cox to a 2-year deal in 2012. He played primarily special teams and dime back work that season. This past season, Cox continued in that role, but was then released on November 12 when the team activated Eric Wright off the NFI list. Cox was then re-signed on December 30 after Carlos Rogers suffered a hamstring injury. Cox climbed past Wright on the depth chart after Wright suffered a hamstring injury the week of the wild card game against the Packers.
The return of Cox means the 49ers cornerback depth chart looks like this:
CB: Tramaine Brock, Perrish Cox, Darryl Morris
CB: Chris Culliver, Eric Wright, Chris Cook, Dax Swanson
The 49ers will look for more depth and long-term options at the position, but conceivably, the team could go into the 2014 season with this group. They won't, but we've heard the team is relatively comfortable with Brock and Culliver in the starting roles. Even if that's an overstatement of their position, they're in a position where they have a ton of flexibility in the 2014 NFL Draft.
The team's big board is always important, but this year, they can be even more proactive in moving around the draft board. If they see someone they like slipping even a little bit, they can give up a pick or two in order to climb and pounce. They can move up, they can move down, they can picks for future picks. The world is Trent Baalke's oyster. He obviously needs to execute with these picks, but I don't see how he can be much more comfortable heading into the 2014 NFL Draft.
