The 49ers have a chance to throw a significant wrinkle into their offense if they can find a second tight end who can impact the game as a receiver.
While it’s been clear the team is angling to find that player, it wasn’t until this year that they made an investment beyond a late pick or an inexpensive free agent. In this year’s draft they selected Alabama’s Cameron Latu in the third round and Oklahoma’s Brayden Willis in the seventh round. Neither player was an extremely productive pass catcher in college, but there’s clear upside with both of them.
The bar for receiving from the backup TE spot in San Francisco is not very high. They’ve had 11 non-George Kittle tight ends play in a game since 2017. Here’s a quick refresher on that list of players: Logan Paulsen, Cole Hikutini, Garrett Celek, Cole Wick, Ross Dwelley, Levine Toilolo, Daniel Helm, Charlie Woerner, Jordan Reed, Tanner Hudson and Tyler Kroft.
Of those 11 players, four (Helm, Hudson, Paulsen and Wick) never caught a pass. The other seven combined have 111 catches for 1,333 yards and 15 touchdowns. Those 15 touchdowns are distributed among three players, and two of those players (Reed and Celek) aren’t in the NFL anymore.
It’s not that the expectation is for the backup TEs to have monster seasons, but the average of 15.8 catches, 190.4 yards and 2.1 touchdowns per year could certainly improve.
And that’s what the 49ers are hoping for with Latu and/or Willis. They just need to provide more in that area to give the 49ers some options with multiple tight end sets. Right now when they want to roll out multiple TEs there isn’t much threat of a pass to that second TE hurting the defense.
That could be the next evolution of head coach Kyle Shanahan’s offense. As more teams run some variation of what the 49ers run, and as defenses start adjusting to positionless offenses by rolling out smaller, more versatile defenders, an effective two-TE set the team can run and pass out of could allow them to combat the athleticism on the other side of the ball with size.
