The San Francisco 49ers suffered through a litany of injuries at the cornerback position in 2022; and as of right now, the future of the position is pretty murky, itself.

Starting cornerback Emmanuel Moseley is coming off a torn ACL, so it's unclear when he'll be at 100% and ready to go. Jason Verrett, another starting corner, suffered a major injury, himself, and his career is all but done thanks to the numerous injuries he's encountered over the last 5-6 years. Both players are currently slated to become free agents in 2023, as well.

Fortunately, Charvarius Ward's strong season and Deommodore Lenoir's breakout year eases the situation heading into the offseason, but the cornerback room falls off a cliff once you get past those two names.

So, it makes sense that the 49ers would be in the market for a cornerback.

As it turns out, the 49ers have an excellent shot to land one of the NFL's best free agent CBs. If they do, expect defensive coordinator Steve Wilks to factor in heavily.

Philadelphia Eagles All-Pro cornerback James Bradberry is set to hit free agency and it's unclear as to whether or not the Eagles will be able to re-sign him. 

Bradberry had the best year of his career in 2022. Per Pro Football Focus, he finished the 2022 regular season with the sixth-highest coverage grade among all cornerbacks with at least 513 coverage snaps. He tied for the second-best forced incompletion percentage (22%) and quarterbacks averaged the second-worst QB rating when throwing his way (54.2). 

Only rookie sensation Sauce Gardner allowed a lower QB rating (53.9).

This all comes with quarterbacks targeting Bradberry 87 times, which was the eighth-most targets among all cornerbacks.  

All of that is great, but here's the key: Bradberry played for the Carolina Panthers during the 2016-2019 seasons. Wilks was the Panthers assistant head coach/secondary coach in 2016 and defensive coordinator in 2017. 

Bradberry has extensive experience in Wilks' system, as he played nearly 1,800 defensive snaps over the course of those two seasons. He's an aggressive corner that fits Wilks' philosophical personality on defense. Bradberry can also effectively play both man and zone coverages and he can play inside and out when needed.

Gone is DeMeco Ryans, in his place is Steve Wilks, and getting him a top-flight cornerback like Bradberry could help ensure this unit remains among the best in the league. – The Athletic's Mike Jones

There won't be a learning curve for Bradberry, whatsoever, either. If anything, there will be a "brush-up period" and that will be the extent of things.

Overall, it makes way too much sense. And the 49ers' cap situation shouldn't be an issue for two main reasons. A) The team can create a bunch of room by adjusting some contracts and B) John Lynch and co. can make Bradberry's initial 2023 cap hit minimal, which obviously keeps things manageable in terms of bringing in other players.