The San Francisco 49ers after the 2024 draft looked set up in their receiving corps for at least a couple of seasons.
Brandon Aiyuk was coming off an All-Pro season. Deebo Samuel had a strong 2023 campaign and was primed to thrive alongside another All-Pro. Jauan Jennings, an integral if seldom-used piece of the 49ers offense, was signed through 2025. San Francisco also drafted Ricky Pearsall in the first round and Jacob Cowing in the fourth round.
That was a receiving corps with a good mix of veterans and young players and a good variance in skill sets. Then the 2024 season played out and now that plan at receiver is full of question marks that may push San Francisco to add another player at the position either in free agency or early in the draft.
Aiyuk is coming off a major knee injury and his status for the start of the regular season is in the air. Samuel is coming off his worst year as a pro. Pearsall flashed when he got more opportunities toward the end of the season, but he’s still a question mark with only 11 games of NFL experience. Cowing is an even bigger question mark going into his second year after struggling to crack the rotation as a rookie.
Jennings is the only player who doesn’t seemingly have any questions hanging over his head after he had his best year as a pro, falling only 25 receiving yards shy of 1,000.
There’s a version of the 49ers receiving corps that’s very good in 2025, but it relies on a lot of things going right. They’d need Aiyuk returning at something close to full strength, Samuel to bounce back in his Age 29 season, Pearsall to breakout in Year 2, Cowing to find his footing as a pro, and Jennings to replicate his career year.
San Francisco would be taking on a significant risk in hoping all of those things to go right. They can mitigate some of that risk by bringing in another receiver or two in the offseason to help fill out their depth and insulate themselves from one or two seasons from another receiver getting off track.
They shouldn’t use another first-round pick on the position, and they shouldn’t offer a massive contract to a free agent, but they should be diligent in finding a reliable pass catcher they can bring in to help avoid a potential catastrophe lurking at a position that looked set going into last season.
