The 49ers are in the market for a wide receiver.<\/p>\n
And we\u2019re not just talking about a camp body, here. They\u2019ve signed enough of those in recent weeks.<\/p>\n
No, San Francisco is searching for someone who can actually play a role on this team come the regular season.<\/p>\n
According to multiple media reports, San Francisco has been working the phone lines trying to swing a trade for a wide-out. They reportedly missed out on former Houston Texan, now Philadelphia Eagle, John Metchie earlier this week.<\/p>\n
If the Niners can strike a deal is one question.<\/p>\n
But the fact that they\u2019re on the prowl answers another:<\/p>\n
No, the Niners do not, in fact, feel good about the state of their wide receiver room.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s a bit of a departure from where this team \u2014 or at least its head coach \u2014 stood a few weeks back.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a challenge,\u201d Kyle Shanahan said of the team\u2019s lack of trustworthy receivers. \u201cThere are lots of things that tie to that, who\u2019s available, how much they\u2019re available for, and the situation our team\u2019s in, salary cap-wise, and what we can do. But yeah, we\u2019re looking into everything. We\u2019ll always try to do the best, but try not to just panic and do something to survive a tough situation at the expense of what would really hurt you later in this year and definitely next year.\u201d<\/p>\n
But it sure seems as if the Niners are panicking a bit.<\/p>\n
And I don\u2019t blame them. This situation is looking more and more dire by the day.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s take inventory:<\/p>\n
This team\u2019s top receiver is Ricky Pearsall, in his second season and first, honest-to-goodness NFL training camp. If not for his emergence as a viable go-to option, the Niners would be operating at Defcon 1 right now.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s call this situation at hand Defcon 2, as in this team lacks a No. 2 receiver at least for the first three weeks of the campaign. A vital three weeks, it should be noted, as there are two division games in that span.<\/p>\n
The Niners can trust Pearsall, but they cannot trust that last season\u2019s No. 1, Jauan Jennings, will come back into the fold anytime soon. Calf injuries are finicky, and the risk of an Achilles rupture from them is dramatically high. Seeing as this is the same calf he injured last season, there\u2019s no timetable for his return this summer.t<\/p>\n
The team needed him back yesterday, but with less than three weeks until the Niners\u2019 season opener in Seattle \u2014 that\u2019s eight, maybe nine practices remaining \u2014 the most Jennings has shown in public is some walking around on a side field Tuesday. That doesn\u2019t suggest that he\u2019ll be out there against the Seahawks.<\/p>\n
We know that Brandon Aiyuk won\u2019t be activated until temperatures drop in the Bay, and there\u2019s no indication that DeMarcus Robinson will avoid a three-game suspension following a November 2024 DUI. Shanahan said earlier this month that Robinson is in an \u201cappeal process,\u201d but seeing as he pled no-contest in July to a charge that carries an automatic NFL suspension, it\u2019s difficult to imagine a circumstance where he\u2019s able to avoid or even limit punishment.<\/p>\n
Rookie Jordan Watkins has a high ankle sprain that is likely to keep him out until at least September.<\/p>\n
Then came Jacob Cowing\u2019s latest injury. Cowing returned to practice last week after a hamstring sprain that sidelined him for the first three-plus weeks of camp, and then he picked up another hamstring injury in Tuesday\u2019s practice.<\/p>\n
Cowing hadn\u2019t done anything worthy of note in his limited practice time, but after a good mini-camp and OTA stretch, there was some optimism he could leap in year two of his NFL career.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s all take a moment to wave goodbye to that optimism. Cowing appears to be on the Drake Jackson track in Santa Clara.<\/p>\n
And those are merely the issues that are known at the moment. Who knows what might have happened behind the scenes while I was writing this column?<\/p>\n
As it stands, the Niners are left with a presumed Week 1 depth chart of Pearsall, Russell Gage, Isaiah Hodgins, and rookie punt returner Junior Bergen. Even Pearsall looking like the truth and Gage and Hodgins proving to be helpful pros, that\u2019s probably the worst receiver room in the NFL.<\/p>\n
Of course, that state isn\u2019t permanent, but the Niners\u2019 constant state of flux at the position has made it clear: San Francisco cannot stand pat. General manager John Lynch needs to go get someone.<\/p>\n
Ignore the big names at the position \u2014 the Niners aren\u2019t looking for anything bold here; Aiyuk, Jennings, and Watkins are expected to play this year, after all. And if there were a viable free agent (Gabe Davis, Amari Cooper), they\u2019d have been signed by now.<\/p>\n
But here\u2019s some good news: the trade market is robust this time of year, and if you\u2019re looking for a depth receiver \u2014 a dependable pro you can keep on your roster for 17 weeks \u2014 there are decent options that won\u2019t cost anything more than a forgettable Day 3 draft pick.<\/p>\n
Seeing as the Niners can\u2019t out and trade for Packers\u2019 now-cornerback Bo Melton (yes, they changed his position and it\u2019s apparently going well), there are three names I suspect are at the top of the 49ers\u2019 attainable wishlist:<\/p>\n
1. Kendrick Bourne, New England<\/p>\n
Bourne has been injured since Aug. 1. He already sounds like a Niner, no? But in his time sidelined, the Pats\u2019 new coaching staff has gotten a good look at their young stable of receivers. I wouldn\u2019t be surprised if they wanted to move on from Bourne, who has two years left on his three-year, $19 million contract, but has no guaranteed money this year or next. The Niners would need strong assurances that Bourne is healthy and ready to play, but given his history with Shanahan, a late-August transition shouldn\u2019t hold back a trade. I bet he\u2019d only cost a forgettable pick swap.<\/p>\n
2. Rakim Jarrett, Tampa Bay<\/p>\n
The Bucs have a strong receiver room, and the unsurprising emergence of rookie Emeka Egbuka has left a handful of more experienced players expendable. Between Jarrett and Trey Palmer, I\u2019d bet on Jarrett, a former five-star recruit whose limitations in Tampa have been tied to injury, not performance. The Niners have enough blocking in the receiver room \u2014 they need someone with the ability to make a big play from the X receiver spot. Jarrett might be able to do just that. The Niners missed out on\u00a0Metchie, but Jarrett is a nice consolation prize.<\/p>\n
3. Mecole Hardman, Green Bay<\/p>\n
The former Chief signed a modest contract with the Packers this offseason, only to see the Packers\u2019 receiver room become the deepest in the NFL (don\u2019t confuse that with best) with two early draft picks, including first-rounder Matthew Golden, added in the subsequent weeks. Hardman seems limited to punt returner in Green Bay, and it wouldn\u2019t be surprising if both parties agreed to part before the start of the season. For the Niners, Hardman can be another gadget player to complement Pearsall (who will be picking up a lot of what remains of the Deebo Samuel playbook). Seeing as Hardman has burned the 49ers every time they\u2019ve played, I\u2019d have to presume he\u2019s held in high regard in Santa Clara. The real hold-up here would be the unlikeness of a Packers-49ers trade. Rivals rarely do deals.<\/p>\n
Originally Published: August 20, 2025 at 3:04 PM PDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 49ers are in the market for a wide receiver. And we\u2019re not just talking about a camp…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":305484,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2080],"tags":[220,7,1921,3171,929,6,1161,252,2624,2623,9,2833],"class_list":{"0":"post-305483","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-francisco-49ers","8":"tag-49ers","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-inside-sports","11":"tag-inside-the-san-francisco-49ers","12":"tag-latest-headlines","13":"tag-nfl","14":"tag-san-francisco","15":"tag-san-francisco-49ers","16":"tag-sanfrancisco","17":"tag-sanfrancisco49ers","18":"tag-sports","19":"tag-sports-columnists"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115065925478210377","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=305483"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305483\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/305484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=305483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=305483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=305483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}