Niners Nation
Of course, when I sit down to write this, the Brandon Aiyuk news breaks. I’m going to go out on a limb here and guess that, had there been another day, this would most likely have been a question. I’ll post some thoughts on the wide receiver situation in general, but here are my thoughts overall:
I see a lot of questions on the 49ers’ social media about who’s to blame. Honestly, it’s 50/50; the 49ers shouldn’t have handed Aiyuk such a massive contract at the very last minute, and Aiyuk shouldn’t have skipped training camp and failed to play at his 2023 self until his unfortunate injury.
I have a question of my own: had Aiyuk not had social media drama, had Aiyuk not been requesting trades and arguing over pennies down to the wire, had he not skipped training camp, would the 49ers have drafted Ricky Pearsall (since training camp is after the draft, that’s hard to answer)? Would the perfect storm of Pearsall blowing up and showing Aiyuk wasn’t needed have happened? I’m all for players getting paid and generally side with them 95 percent of the time.
After signing, the few games we did see Aiyuk play in during the 2024 season had him dropping balls he caught in his sleep a year prior. In his first game of 2024, he dropped the total number of balls he dropped the year before.
On the 49ers’ side, I hope this doesn’t bite them in the future, not for how they are running Aiyuk out of San Francisco, but for their reputation with other free agents wanting to come to the team. The fact that Aiyuk doesn’t even wish to try arbitration with the NFLPA to get his guarantees back seems odd.
There should be more information to come out on this, and I’ve rambled on enough. Onto your questions:
The WR corps for 2026 is a mystery. Will Aiyuk come back strong, and–per Kawakami–do the Niners even want to keep him? Will Pearsall ever play a full season? Is Cowing a bust? Will Watkins see the field? If Jennings departs, we might not have much to work with. Do we draft a WR on day 1-2? In sum: what’s your prediction for the six WRs who take the field in September 2026?
Flydyl
LOL. This came before the Aiyuk news. The wide receiver group in 2026 is a bigger mystery now. The 49ers originally would have had Brandon Aiyuk and Ricky Pearsall as their top wide receivers for 2026 and would have made a decent case for one of the better wide receiver rooms with them, had Demarcus Robinson, Jacob Cowing, and Jordan Watkins returned under contract.
Now it’s a bit unclear. Kendrick Bourne is on a one-year deal. Jauan Jennings is in the last year of his contract (and after all of that drama, can they get him to stick around, too?) Are Cowing/Watkins possible Number two and three wide receivers? The only...
