When it comes to offseason needs for the San Francisco 49ers, wide receiver is near or atop that list, with the team potentially needing to replace two starters this offseason.<\/p>\n
Jauan Jennings, a seventh-round pick back in 2020, is a free agent and could command a hefty salary on the open market after recording over 1,600 yards and 15 touchdowns over the last two years. San Francisco didn\u2019t have the most stable group this year without Brandon Aiyuk, who missed the entire year and isn\u2019t expected back with the team. And Ricky Pearsall has been hampered with injuries, limiting him to just 20 games over the past two years.<\/p>\n
The team has drafted a couple of players at the position in recent years. They took Pearsall and Jacob Cowing in the first and fourth rounds of the 2024 NFL Draft, respectively. Then, they drafted Jordan Watkins in the fifth round last year. The trio has played in just 39 of a possible 85 games.<\/p>\n
So it wasn\u2019t a surprise that John Lynch was asked about his assessment of the receiver room at the 2026 NFL Scouting Combine this week. Speaking to reporters, the general manager pointed to those younger pieces as the players who need to step up in 2026.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, obviously, Jauan\u2019s a free agent, and we\u2019ve been in good contact with Jauan,\u201d Lynch said when asked about the receivers. \u201cWe\u2019ll see where that goes. We\u2019ve got some young players that we really need to come to the forefront. Jacob Cowing\u2019s a guy that we\u2019ve had, and we\u2019ve like for a couple years, he hasn\u2019t been on to be able to be on the field much because of his hamstring ailments.<\/p>\n
\u201cRicky\u2019s a fantastic player. We\u2019ve got to find a way to keep him healthy. He had a tough injury early, and he kept dinging the same thing over and over and over, and it was a tough year for him. Ricky\u2019s going to be a fine player. Jordan Watkins has to take big steps, and then we\u2019ve got opportunities to improve ourselves by either bringing back some of the players who have been with us or go finding new guys that fit who we want to be and what we want to be both in free agency and in the draft.\u201d<\/p>\n
It seems like the 49ers will add at least one impact piece this offseason, though there\u2019s probably a need for multiple if Jennings departs. The draft has been an avenue for cost-controlled talent in recent years, but the 49ers will need to hit there after seeing their recent draftees struggle to get on the field. As for free agency, there are intriguing options, but it will depend on how much the team is willing to spend.<\/p>\n
Speed is something this group lacked in 2025. That could be an area to target in free agency, with Indianapolis\u2019s Alec Pierce and Seattle\u2019s Rashid Shaheed among the top options, assuming they don\u2019t return to their existing teams.<\/p>\n
But the 49ers need more production from a wideout group that didn\u2019t have a single player eclipse 700 yards in 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When it comes to offseason needs for the San Francisco 49ers, wide receiver is near or atop that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":776945,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2080],"tags":[220,7,6,1161,252,52067,1137,2624,2623],"class_list":{"0":"post-776944","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-nfl","11":"tag-san-francisco","12":"tag-san-francisco-49ers","13":"tag-san-francisco-49ers-roster","14":"tag-san-francisco-49ers-news","15":"tag-sanfrancisco","16":"tag-sanfrancisco49ers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116135398252276892","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/776944","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=776944"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/776944\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/776945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=776944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=776944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=776944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}