One of the moves the 49ers made that set in motion the semi-urgent panic about Brandon Aiyuk’s future in San Francisco was their selection of Florida wide receiver Ricky Pearsall in the first round of this year’s draft. They later spent a fourth-round pick on Arizona WR Jacob Cowing.
It appears the 49ers are gearing up for some sort of seismic change in their receiving corps, leading some to believe there’s pessimism from the team about their ability to retain Aiyuk for the long-term.
Let’s explore that space for a moment and try to capture just how absurd it would be if the team’s thought process truly is “Aiyuk is replaceable and therefore won’t be getting a top-of-market deal.”
San Francisco has had success with wide receivers under head coach Kyle Shanahan thanks to the selections of Deebo Samuel in Round 2 of the 2019 draft, their trade up for Aiyuk in the first round in 2020, and the Jauan Jennings pick in Round 7 of that 2020 draft.
Beyond that the position has been a little bit of a mess for the 49ers. Let’s remember some guys:
2017, Round 5: Trent Taylor
2018, Round 2: Dante Pettis
2018, Round 7: Richie James
2019, Round 3: Jalen Hurd
2022, Round 3: Danny Gray
2023, Round 7: Ronnie Bell
Since 2017, and not including players selected this year, this is the group of WRs the 49ers have drafted. In that time they also acquired Emmanuel Sanders for half a season via trade.
The success of this group in San Francisco was a mixed bag, but the common thread between them is that none of them are even close to as impactful as Aiyuk has been for the 49ers. Simply going out and finding another player capable of stacking consecutive 1,000-yard seasons in one of the lowest-volume passing offenses in the NFL isn’t a simple thing. Letting the young, franchise quarterback’s top target walk just in time to throw a bunch of money at that QB puts both the quarterback and the team at risk of cratering.
Head coach Kyle Shanahan is always going to be able to generate some offense, but why purposely make it harder by adding a player who’s unlikely to be as good as Aiyuk, who made his first All-Pro team in 2023 after finishing seventh in the NFL in receiving yards despite ranking No. 36 in targets and No. 32 in receptions.
If the expectation is that Pearsall will step in and be that player right away, it puts a major onus on him to be great with not a ton of runway to get there. There’s a real chance in the next two or three years the team will need to lean on its WRs more with running back Christian McCaffrey crossing the 30-year-old threshold and tight end George Kittle pushing toward his mid-30s.
Maybe the 49ers believe they’re better off building a team without a $30 million per year contract on the books at receiver. That’s a risky proposition though, and all the team has to do to find evidence is look at its own recent history.
