Going into their wild-card game at Green Bay, there were genuine concerns about the secondary of the San Francisco 49ers.

After the depleted unit played well, keeping Aaron Rodgers from engineering an upset, prospects for Sunday's NFC divisional playoff game at Carolina look much more promising.

It appears cornerback Carlos Rogers is on schedule to play at Carolina. He missed the Green Bay game with a hamstring injury he suffered in Week 17 at Arizona. Rogers told reporters Tuesday he's been running and feels on pace to play.

If Rogers plays, that means Perrish Cox will drop to the dime. Cox, signed last week, was the surprise call at nickel against Green Bay. He played nearly the entire game and did well, especially considering he was unemployed the week before. Cox was given the call over veteran Eric Wright.

Wright was expected to be the nickel with Rogers out. But there were indications that the team wasn't quite ready for Wright to play. He could bounce back and play some nickel moving forward.

Regardless, with a healthy Rogers and confidence in Cox, the 49ers head forward in the playoffs with renewed strength at the position.