2021 49ers offseason

[CrimsonCrew]

The only thing that strikes me about the NFC West is that all of the other teams are going for speed on offense and the 49ers are not really responding on defense ... that said the other teams are going to struggle against the 49ers power game (running and passing) if they swing too far to respond to the speed of the other 3 teams.

It's an interesting aspect of the division. The Niners have had some major success going against the grain with the league's shift to more passing, first under Harbaugh and now under Shanahan. And there is something to be said for it, obviously. We've made the SB twice in the last decade by being a run-first team. That said, the statistics tend to bear out that passing is more effective, and you don't want to hew too far in the opposite direction.

I'm worried about our receiving group. If any of our top three guys (including Kittle) gets hurt, which is very likely, we're going to be hard up to find players to throw to. And I'm not sold on Banks as a starting OG, but hopefully he'll slim down and improve his lateral movement skills.

I've been calling for the team to add a blue-chip DB for years now, and it's pretty clear it's just not a position they value. That said, our defense in general has solid enough speed to keep up in the division. Warner and Greenlaw are both fast for their respective positions, and our DBs are at least average. Verrett ran a 4.38 back in the day, Moseley ran a 4.42 at his pro day, and both performed well at the agility drills (especially Verrett). Thomas has some wheels, with a 4.41 40, but he didn't do the agility stuff. Even Lenoir ran a 4.45, though his agility marks were poor. Like WR, we're pretty thin and relying on unproven guys, but at least we've got some draft picks to scrap it out.

[Scoots1994]

The only thing that strikes me about the NFC West is that all of the other teams are going for speed on offense and the 49ers are not really responding on defense ... that said the other teams are going to struggle against the 49ers power game (running and passing) if they swing too far to respond to the speed of the other 3 teams.

It's an interesting aspect of the division. The Niners have had some major success going against the grain with the league's shift to more passing, first under Harbaugh and now under Shanahan. And there is something to be said for it, obviously. We've made the SB twice in the last decade by being a run-first team. That said, the statistics tend to bear out that passing is more effective, and you don't want to hew too far in the opposite direction.

I'm worried about our receiving group. If any of our top three guys (including Kittle) gets hurt, which is very likely, we're going to be hard up to find players to throw to. And I'm not sold on Banks as a starting OG, but hopefully he'll slim down and improve his lateral movement skills.

I've been calling for the team to add a blue-chip DB for years now, and it's pretty clear it's just not a position they value. That said, our defense in general has solid enough speed to keep up in the division. Warner and Greenlaw are both fast for their respective positions, and our DBs are at least average. Verrett ran a 4.38 back in the day, Moseley ran a 4.42 at his pro day, and both performed well at the agility drills (especially Verrett). Thomas has some wheels, with a 4.41 40, but he didn't do the agility stuff. Even Lenoir ran a 4.45, though his agility marks were poor. Like WR, we're pretty thin and relying on unproven guys, but at least we've got some draft picks to scrap it out.

Sermon and Mitchell are part of the receiving plan too. WR is thin, but they are only going to invest light there going forward. Lynch made it clear he values the line above any other position on D and he trusts himself and his scouts/coaches to get DBs to work well. The killer is that the Niners have spent HUGE draft capital on the D-line and they have to dominate this year. But Buckner (7) and Thomas (3) are gone which hurts to lose those high picks so quickly. Armstead and Kinlaw need to take a big step up ... but we have reason to feel they are at least solid. After that see if you can see a trend: Bosa will be great if he's healthy, but they will try to give him a break in snaps. Ford is great if he's playing. DJ Jones can be good if he can stay on the field. Street and Taylor have shown flashes but can't stay healthy. Ebukam has just been okay but at least he's been healthy. The rest of they players on the DL are just guys who are mostly young but lacking in production. That's not great for all the draft capital invested and it being the "key" to the defense.

[CrimsonCrew]

The only thing that strikes me about the NFC West is that all of the other teams are going for speed on offense and the 49ers are not really responding on defense ... that said the other teams are going to struggle against the 49ers power game (running and passing) if they swing too far to respond to the speed of the other 3 teams.

It's an interesting aspect of the division. The Niners have had some major success going against the grain with the league's shift to more passing, first under Harbaugh and now under Shanahan. And there is something to be said for it, obviously. We've made the SB twice in the last decade by being a run-first team. That said, the statistics tend to bear out that passing is more effective, and you don't want to hew too far in the opposite direction.

I'm worried about our receiving group. If any of our top three guys (including Kittle) gets hurt, which is very likely, we're going to be hard up to find players to throw to. And I'm not sold on Banks as a starting OG, but hopefully he'll slim down and improve his lateral movement skills.

I've been calling for the team to add a blue-chip DB for years now, and it's pretty clear it's just not a position they value. That said, our defense in general has solid enough speed to keep up in the division. Warner and Greenlaw are both fast for their respective positions, and our DBs are at least average. Verrett ran a 4.38 back in the day, Moseley ran a 4.42 at his pro day, and both performed well at the agility drills (especially Verrett). Thomas has some wheels, with a 4.41 40, but he didn't do the agility stuff. Even Lenoir ran a 4.45, though his agility marks were poor. Like WR, we're pretty thin and relying on unproven guys, but at least we've got some draft picks to scrap it out.

Sermon and Mitchell are part of the receiving plan too. WR is thin, but they are only going to invest light there going forward. Lynch made it clear he values the line above any other position on D and he trusts himself and his scouts/coaches to get DBs to work well. The killer is that the Niners have spent HUGE draft capital on the D-line and they have to dominate this year. But Buckner (7) and Thomas (3) are gone which hurts to lose those high picks so quickly. Armstead and Kinlaw need to take a big step up ... but we have reason to feel they are at least solid. After that see if you can see a trend: Bosa will be great if he's healthy, but they will try to give him a break in snaps. Ford is great if he's playing. DJ Jones can be good if he can stay on the field. Street and Taylor have shown flashes but can't stay healthy. Ebukam has just been okay but at least he's been healthy. The rest of they players on the DL are just guys who are mostly young but lacking in production. That's not great for all the draft capital invested and it being the "key" to the defense.

They've only spent slightly less capital on WR than DL (and arguably more), which is part of why it's so frickin' frustrating we still only have two players at the position.

I've detailed this before, but we gave out a huge FA contract to Pierre Garcon (I understood the rationale at the time, but we completely overpaid for an aging player who posted less than 800 yards and 1 TD in two years with the team), a fairly hefty extension to Marquise Goodwin, a 5th for Trent Taylor, a 2nd for Dante Pettis (traded a 2nd and a 3rd to move up for him), a 2nd for Deebo Samuel when they could have had AJ Brown, a 3rd for Jalen Hurd when they could have had Terry McLaurin, a 3rd and a 4th to rent Emmanuel Sanders for a few months, a 1st for Aiyuk (traded a 2nd and a 1st, 4th, and 5th).

That's a huge contract, and a 1st, two 2nds, three 3rds, two 4ths, and two 5ths (six picks from the first three rounds, and ten "higher value" picks) in the span of five years, and we only have two semi-competent players at the position to show for it, one of whom absolutely cannot be relied upon to stay healthy. That's been absolutely devastating.

I'm not entirely certain what you mean by only investing "light" at the position going forward, but if you mean not using more picks on it, I think that's a mistake. Until Samuel and Hurd show an ability to get/stay on the field, we need to be targeting the position as early as the second round every year.

[Scoots1994]

It's an interesting aspect of the division. The Niners have had some major success going against the grain with the league's shift to more passing, first under Harbaugh and now under Shanahan. And there is something to be said for it, obviously. We've made the SB twice in the last decade by being a run-first team. That said, the statistics tend to bear out that passing is more effective, and you don't want to hew too far in the opposite direction.

I'm worried about our receiving group. If any of our top three guys (including Kittle) gets hurt, which is very likely, we're going to be hard up to find players to throw to. And I'm not sold on Banks as a starting OG, but hopefully he'll slim down and improve his lateral movement skills.

I've been calling for the team to add a blue-chip DB for years now, and it's pretty clear it's just not a position they value. That said, our defense in general has solid enough speed to keep up in the division. Warner and Greenlaw are both fast for their respective positions, and our DBs are at least average. Verrett ran a 4.38 back in the day, Moseley ran a 4.42 at his pro day, and both performed well at the agility drills (especially Verrett). Thomas has some wheels, with a 4.41 40, but he didn't do the agility stuff. Even Lenoir ran a 4.45, though his agility marks were poor. Like WR, we're pretty thin and relying on unproven guys, but at least we've got some draft picks to scrap it out.

Sermon and Mitchell are part of the receiving plan too. WR is thin, but they are only going to invest light there going forward. Lynch made it clear he values the line above any other position on D and he trusts himself and his scouts/coaches to get DBs to work well. The killer is that the Niners have spent HUGE draft capital on the D-line and they have to dominate this year. But Buckner (7) and Thomas (3) are gone which hurts to lose those high picks so quickly. Armstead and Kinlaw need to take a big step up ... but we have reason to feel they are at least solid. After that see if you can see a trend: Bosa will be great if he's healthy, but they will try to give him a break in snaps. Ford is great if he's playing. DJ Jones can be good if he can stay on the field. Street and Taylor have shown flashes but can't stay healthy. Ebukam has just been okay but at least he's been healthy. The rest of they players on the DL are just guys who are mostly young but lacking in production. That's not great for all the draft capital invested and it being the "key" to the defense.

They've only spent slightly less capital on WR than DL (and arguably more), which is part of why it's so frickin' frustrating we still only have two players at the position.

I've detailed this before, but we gave out a huge FA contract to Pierre Garcon (I understood the rationale at the time, but we completely overpaid for an aging player who posted less than 800 yards and 1 TD in two years with the team), a fairly hefty extension to Marquise Goodwin, a 5th for Trent Taylor, a 2nd for Dante Pettis (traded a 2nd and a 3rd to move up for him), a 2nd for Deebo Samuel when they could have had AJ Brown, a 3rd for Jalen Hurd when they could have had Terry McLaurin, a 3rd and a 4th to rent Emmanuel Sanders for a few months, a 1st for Aiyuk (traded a 2nd and a 1st, 4th, and 5th).

That's a huge contract, and a 1st, two 2nds, three 3rds, two 4ths, and two 5ths (six picks from the first three rounds, and ten "higher value" picks) in the span of five years, and we only have two semi-competent players at the position to show for it, one of whom absolutely cannot be relied upon to stay healthy. That's been absolutely devastating.

I'm not entirely certain what you mean by only investing "light" at the position going forward, but if you mean not using more picks on it, I think that's a mistake. Until Samuel and Hurd show an ability to get/stay on the field, we need to be targeting the position as early as the second round every year.

If Samuel and Aiyuk can stay healthy my guess is WR is de-prioritized in the draft next year.

[CrimsonCrew]

Sermon and Mitchell are part of the receiving plan too. WR is thin, but they are only going to invest light there going forward. Lynch made it clear he values the line above any other position on D and he trusts himself and his scouts/coaches to get DBs to work well. The killer is that the Niners have spent HUGE draft capital on the D-line and they have to dominate this year. But Buckner (7) and Thomas (3) are gone which hurts to lose those high picks so quickly. Armstead and Kinlaw need to take a big step up ... but we have reason to feel they are at least solid. After that see if you can see a trend: Bosa will be great if he's healthy, but they will try to give him a break in snaps. Ford is great if he's playing. DJ Jones can be good if he can stay on the field. Street and Taylor have shown flashes but can't stay healthy. Ebukam has just been okay but at least he's been healthy. The rest of they players on the DL are just guys who are mostly young but lacking in production. That's not great for all the draft capital invested and it being the "key" to the defense.

They've only spent slightly less capital on WR than DL (and arguably more), which is part of why it's so frickin' frustrating we still only have two players at the position.

I've detailed this before, but we gave out a huge FA contract to Pierre Garcon (I understood the rationale at the time, but we completely overpaid for an aging player who posted less than 800 yards and 1 TD in two years with the team), a fairly hefty extension to Marquise Goodwin, a 5th for Trent Taylor, a 2nd for Dante Pettis (traded a 2nd and a 3rd to move up for him), a 2nd for Deebo Samuel when they could have had AJ Brown, a 3rd for Jalen Hurd when they could have had Terry McLaurin, a 3rd and a 4th to rent Emmanuel Sanders for a few months, a 1st for Aiyuk (traded a 2nd and a 1st, 4th, and 5th).

That's a huge contract, and a 1st, two 2nds, three 3rds, two 4ths, and two 5ths (six picks from the first three rounds, and ten "higher value" picks) in the span of five years, and we only have two semi-competent players at the position to show for it, one of whom absolutely cannot be relied upon to stay healthy. That's been absolutely devastating.

I'm not entirely certain what you mean by only investing "light" at the position going forward, but if you mean not using more picks on it, I think that's a mistake. Until Samuel and Hurd show an ability to get/stay on the field, we need to be targeting the position as early as the second round every year.

If Samuel and Aiyuk can stay healthy my guess is WR is de-prioritized in the draft next year.

There's a lot that goes into it. If Samuel and Aiyuk stay healthy - which is a pretty big if - we might not be looking WR in the earlier rounds. That's especially true as we're down a first and a third next year. That said, personally, I'd need something more. I'd need Hurd to stay healthy and play well, or James to step up (though he's a FA this year), or see something promising from Watkins. We are just paper thin at the position right now, which again, is appalling given what we've thrown at the position.

[tres]

To be honest Deebo Samuel will never stay healthy due to how hard he runs.

[CrimsonCrew]

To be honest Deebo Samuel will never stay healthy due to how hard he runs.

Agreed. Same goes for Kittle. We just have to assume these guys are going to get nicked up - or worse - throughout the season. For that matter, even if Hurd plays 16 games and does great, we can't really rely on him to stay healthy.

[tres]

To be honest Deebo Samuel will never stay healthy due to how hard he runs.

Agreed. Same goes for Kittle. We just have to assume these guys are going to get nicked up - or worse - throughout the season. For that matter, even if Hurd plays 16 games and does great, we can't really rely on him to stay healthy.

Hurd scares me due to how Jerick McKinnon looked last year. I know they play 2 different positions but having 2 years off from playing Football is not easy to come back from.

[CrimsonCrew]

To be honest Deebo Samuel will never stay healthy due to how hard he runs.

Agreed. Same goes for Kittle. We just have to assume these guys are going to get nicked up - or worse - throughout the season. For that matter, even if Hurd plays 16 games and does great, we can't really rely on him to stay healthy.

Hurd scares me due to how Jerick McKinnon looked last year. I know they play 2 different positions but having 2 years off from playing Football is not easy to come back from.

So you're saying we shouldn't have high hopes for Maqise Lee and Travis Benjamin?

I get what you're saying, but Hurd and McKinnon also play the game differently. McKinnon's game relied heavily on speed and lateral agility, and he clearly lost some of the due to the injury. That wasn't really Hurd's game in college - to the extent that he had a game in college - so I wouldn't be as worried. McKinnon also seems to have had a particularly bad knee injury. Though he didn't have the back issue, either.

[tres]

Agreed. Same goes for Kittle. We just have to assume these guys are going to get nicked up - or worse - throughout the season. For that matter, even if Hurd plays 16 games and does great, we can't really rely on him to stay healthy.

Hurd scares me due to how Jerick McKinnon looked last year. I know they play 2 different positions but having 2 years off from playing Football is not easy to come back from.

So you're saying we shouldn't have high hopes for Maqise Lee and Travis Benjamin?

I get what you're saying, but Hurd and McKinnon also play the game differently. McKinnon's game relied heavily on speed and lateral agility, and he clearly lost some of the due to the injury. That wasn't really Hurd's game in college - to the extent that he had a game in college - so I wouldn't be as worried. McKinnon also seems to have had a particularly bad knee injury. Though he didn't have the back issue, either.

I’ve never heard of Maqise Lee in my life but judging by the comments that I saw on this popular Niners page that I follow on Instagram he won’t make the roster..

As far as Travis Benjamin I seen some good highlights when he was with the Chargers, very fast guy but at the same time out of all the offseason news I haven’t heard much from him. I know somebody is gonna get cut out of Sanu, Benjamin & Lee that’s for sure. I agree with everything else you said tho

[CrimsonCrew]

Hurd scares me due to how Jerick McKinnon looked last year. I know they play 2 different positions but having 2 years off from playing Football is not easy to come back from.

So you're saying we shouldn't have high hopes for Maqise Lee and Travis Benjamin?

I get what you're saying, but Hurd and McKinnon also play the game differently. McKinnon's game relied heavily on speed and lateral agility, and he clearly lost some of the due to the injury. That wasn't really Hurd's game in college - to the extent that he had a game in college - so I wouldn't be as worried. McKinnon also seems to have had a particularly bad knee injury. Though he didn't have the back issue, either.

I’ve never heard of Maqise Lee in my life but judging by the comments that I saw on this popular Niners page that I follow on Instagram he won’t make the roster..

As far as Travis Benjamin I seen some good highlights when he was with the Chargers, very fast guy but at the same time out of all the offseason news I haven’t heard much from him. I know somebody is gonna get cut out of Sanu, Benjamin & Lee that’s for sure. I agree with everything else you said tho

You've never heard of Marqise Lee? Really? He won the Biletnikoff award as the best receiver in college football in 2012, with 1700+ yards and 14 TDs and was drafted 39th overall in 2013. His NFL career has been pretty quiet, largely due to injuries. But he's also spent his entire career with the Jags (technically with the Pats last year, but he opted out).

I'm not expecting him to finally realize his potential and become an impact player by any means, but given our current depth chart, I think he's got a decent shot of making the roster if he can stay healthy. I'd bet on him making the team over Benjamin, though Benjamin has speed, which is otherwise somewhat lacking among our receivers.

[tres]

So you're saying we shouldn't have high hopes for Maqise Lee and Travis Benjamin?

I get what you're saying, but Hurd and McKinnon also play the game differently. McKinnon's game relied heavily on speed and lateral agility, and he clearly lost some of the due to the injury. That wasn't really Hurd's game in college - to the extent that he had a game in college - so I wouldn't be as worried. McKinnon also seems to have had a particularly bad knee injury. Though he didn't have the back issue, either.

I’ve never heard of Maqise Lee in my life but judging by the comments that I saw on this popular Niners page that I follow on Instagram he won’t make the roster..

As far as Travis Benjamin I seen some good highlights when he was with the Chargers, very fast guy but at the same time out of all the offseason news I haven’t heard much from him. I know somebody is gonna get cut out of Sanu, Benjamin & Lee that’s for sure. I agree with everything else you said tho

You've never heard of Marqise Lee? Really? He won the Biletnikoff award as the best receiver in college football in 2012, with 1700+ yards and 14 TDs and was drafted 39th overall in 2013. His NFL career has been pretty quiet, largely due to injuries. But he's also spent his entire career with the Jags (technically with the Pats last year, but he opted out).

I'm not expecting him to finally realize his potential and become an impact player by any means, but given our current depth chart, I think he's got a decent shot of making the roster if he can stay healthy. I'd bet on him making the team over Benjamin, though Benjamin has speed, which is otherwise somewhat lacking among our receivers.

Nah I haven’t heard of him but that’s because I only follow SEC teams in College Football. I did follow Ohio State & Clemson recently due to Justin Fields & Trevor Lawrence both being from my hometown state & Clemson beating Bama in Lawrence’s freshman year. but oh ok

[wco81]

So Michael Lombardi looked at teams who might trade for Julio Jones, who's got like $37 million over the next 3 years on the books for the Falcons.

First team in the 49ers with $17 million cap space. Julio's number is scheduled to be $11 million, which sounds low. But whichever team acquires him could give him an extension over say 5 years and lower his cap number.

However, the 49ers have to think about extensions for Warner and Bosa, which will both be huge.

Next team is the Pats, which have huge cap space. They've used a big time WR before, Moss still in his prime.

Finally the Rams, who don't have a lot of cap space but have shown they will do anything for the short term and they've already mortgaged the future so why wouldn't they double-down and really go for it with Julio?

Lombardi made it sound like the Hawks have to get Julio off their books, as they're in cap hell. But they're going to expect a huge windfall. So which teams have future draft assets and cap space?

[Bingo_AlphaMan]

JALEN HURD
WR, SAN FRANCISCO 49ERS

The 49ers expect WR Jalen Hurd (knee) to be ready for Week 1.

The No. 67 overall pick of the 2019 Draft, Hurd has never played a down of NFL football. He missed all of 2019 with back issues and all of last season with a torn ACL. The Niners had been hoping 6-foot-4 Hurd could play a "big slot" role. In theory, he could still be a candidate to do so, but players whose careers get off to the kind of injury starts that Hurd has experienced have extremely poor track records of ever getting on track. Hurd is a 50-50 proposition at the very end of Dynasty benches.
SOURCE: David Lombardi on Twitter

May 20, 2021, 6:06 PM ET

[wco81]

Are there big slot WRs who produce?

Many of the best slot WRs are these shorter guys with short-area quickness to get quick separation on the breaks, often on underneath patterns.

Maybe Kyle plans to use him more in the run game, both as a ball carrier and blocker at the edge.

[CrimsonCrew]

Are there big slot WRs who produce?

Many of the best slot WRs are these shorter guys with short-area quickness to get quick separation on the breaks, often on underneath patterns.

Maybe Kyle plans to use him more in the run game, both as a ball carrier and blocker at the edge.

Sure. Marques Colston leaps to mind, though that's a dated reference at this point. JuJu Smith-Schuster isn't Hurd big, but he's a bigger guy who plays from the slot a lot. Ceedee Lamb mostly played from the slot, and he's got good size. Davante Adams played almost half his snaps from the slot last year. Same with Chris Godwin. Cooper Kupp mostly plays from the slot. Keenan Allen is mostly a slot guy.

Outside of Colston, none of those guys have Hurd's size, but they're all bigger WRs generally. I think it can still be a scheme fit. In terms of less prominent players, Allen Lazard has similar size and mostly plays from the slot (granted he's been somewhat inconsistent). Jordan Matthews is at least in the ballpark and played primarily from the slot (also not all that well). There just aren't that many guys with that size in the league in general, and most of those don't have the lateral agility to play inside. But Hurd is a different story with his RB experience and movement skills. Hopefully.

[CrimsonCrew]

Oh, and I should note that we've seen a lot more TEs playing from the slot over the past several years, and they are almost all as big as or bigger than Hurd.

[CrimsonCrew]

I’ve never heard of Maqise Lee in my life but judging by the comments that I saw on this popular Niners page that I follow on Instagram he won’t make the roster..

As far as Travis Benjamin I seen some good highlights when he was with the Chargers, very fast guy but at the same time out of all the offseason news I haven’t heard much from him. I know somebody is gonna get cut out of Sanu, Benjamin & Lee that’s for sure. I agree with everything else you said tho

You've never heard of Marqise Lee? Really? He won the Biletnikoff award as the best receiver in college football in 2012, with 1700+ yards and 14 TDs and was drafted 39th overall in 2013. His NFL career has been pretty quiet, largely due to injuries. But he's also spent his entire career with the Jags (technically with the Pats last year, but he opted out).

I'm not expecting him to finally realize his potential and become an impact player by any means, but given our current depth chart, I think he's got a decent shot of making the roster if he can stay healthy. I'd bet on him making the team over Benjamin, though Benjamin has speed, which is otherwise somewhat lacking among our receivers.

Nah I haven’t heard of him but that’s because I only follow SEC teams in College Football. I did follow Ohio State & Clemson recently due to Justin Fields & Trevor Lawrence both being from my hometown state & Clemson beating Bama in Lawrence’s freshman year. but oh ok

Haha. Well, so much for that. Lee cut in favor of Bennie Fowler. I can't see that as a step up from Lee. Weird. Though Lee may not have STs value.

[CrimsonCrew]

Other than the potential STs contribution, dropping Lee for Fowler is a real head-scratcher for me. They've been in the league the same number of years, but Lee was much more highly regarded coming out, and has been much more productive. He's got twice as many career yards, and his best season saw 500 more yards than Fowler's best. And I'm looking for a guy to be our third or fourth WR. I'm not looking for a STs ace (I may be looking for that, too, but that's not what I was looking for with Lee; we need actually bodies to compete at the WR position). Personally, I would have gone with a guy like Lee over Sanu and Benjamin.

I guess I just don't see this WR group as being anywhere near as talented as the FO apparently does. There's so much projection to anticipate contributions from anyone outside the top two or possibly three.

[Samurai]

Other than the potential STs contribution, dropping Lee for Fowler is a real head-scratcher for me. They've been in the league the same number of years, but Lee was much more highly regarded coming out, and has been much more productive. He's got twice as many career yards, and his best season saw 500 more yards than Fowler's best. And I'm looking for a guy to be our third or fourth WR. I'm not looking for a STs ace (I may be looking for that, too, but that's not what I was looking for with Lee; we need actually bodies to compete at the WR position). Personally, I would have gone with a guy like Lee over Sanu and Benjamin.

I guess I just don't see this WR group as being anywhere near as talented as the FO apparently does. There's so much projection to anticipate contributions from anyone outside the top two or possibly three.

My guess is that the coaches are looking at two things that Fowler brings that our current receiving corps is lacking: speed and reliability. With the caveat that playing speed isn't always the same as 40 time, Fowler's 4.38 is faster than our other receivers and certainly faster than Lee. Reliability is also missing among our current receivers since Fowler has never missed a pro game due to injury. Neither Deebo, Aiyuk, Hurd nor Lee can make that claim.