The injury storylines that we have seen come out of San Francisco this season have been some of the wildest in recent memory. From their rookie first-round wide receiver suffering a gun shot wound in an attempted robbery, all the way to their all-world running back’s preseason calf strain turning into dual Achilles tendonitis that culminated in a trip to Germany for treatment, the 49ers’ injury reports have read more like over-dramatized television scripts than real-life scenarios.
POWERFUL: #49ers WR Ricky Pearsall THANKS GOD after catching his 1st NFL touchdown just 2 months after surviving getting shot.
“Obviously, having that presence of God with me through those moments, there was a lot of signs that He was giving to me throughout that time”
🙏🙏🙏 pic.twitter.com/ZYQDs27fAn
— MLFootball (@_MLFootball) November 11, 2024
Following his meeting with a specialist in Germany, #49ers star RB Christian McCaffrey is set to miss a minimum of 2 months
Who knows when we will see CMC playing this season. pic.twitter.com/XzjaO5mg9j
— Adam Schelfer (@AdamSche1fer) September 26, 2024
In between those headlines, we have also seen the normal knee, hamstring, hip, chest, and rib injuries that plague players every year. All told, the only primary skill position player that has made it through the season relatively unscathed has been quarterback Brock Purdy.
While all of the team’s position groups have dealt with their fair share of injury woes, perhaps none of the 49ers position groups have been hit harder than their receivers. Brandon Aiyuk proved to be the ironman of the group, as the only player to play in every game up until Week 7. But then Aiyuk was hit the hardest of any San Francisco receiver when he suffered an ACL injury that will force him out for the remainder of the season.
Even before the injury, Aiyuk was not putting up his normal numbers after an extended holdout during training camp led to him receiving a big contract extension.
BREAKING: 49ers, WR Brandon Aiyuk agree to 4-year, $120M extension ($76M in guarantees).
(via @mikegarafolo + @rapsheet) pic.twitter.com/eRXnXZVab7— NFL (@NFL) August 29, 2024
In fact, neither Aiyuk nor Deebo Samuel have lived up to their normal standards this season, as both have only cleared the 20-point PPR threshold once each this season, putting up three WR1 weeks in a combined 18 games. Prior to 2024, Samuel was averaging a WR1 performance in one out of every three games across his career, while Aiyuk came in a little lower at a 21% clip.
With their stars underperforming, leave it to the 49ers to have another player emerge from relative mediocrity. And that is exactly what Jauan Jennings was able to do when Samuel and star tight end George Kittle both missed the team’s game against the Rams in Week 3.
Jennings’ 46.5 PPR points in Week 3 was the season high for any player until Ja’Marr Chase destroyed the Ravens’ secondary in Week 10. But Jennings wasn’t able to recreate the same magic once Samuel and Kittle returned to the lineup, and eventually suffered a hip injury that kept him out of San Francisco’s final two games heading into their Week 9 bye.
Truth be told, the only player in San Francisco’s receiving corps who has lived up to expectations has been Kittle, as the superstar TE currently leads the NFL in PPR points per game at the position.
Kittle has also been the pillar of consistency, scoring as a TE1 in every game in which he has played this season. But true to form, he has missed two games so far this season, including last week’s game versus the Seahawks with a hamstring injury.
After being one of the league’s premier teams across Kyle Shanahan’s entire tenure, the 49ers have found themselves hovering around a 0.500 record for the entirety of the 2024 season. Slowly but surely, the team is inching its way back to full health for the stretch run. San Francisco’s rushing game has been its usual dominant self, but there are enough new faces in the passing game to shed an air of uncertainty over the hierarchy in the receiving corps. With that being said, is there a chance we see a new top target emerge in San Francisco over the remainder of 2024?
Minus the absence of Aiyuk, the 49ers returned to nearly full health with all of Christian McCaffrey, Ricky Pearsall, and Jennings being in the fold when the team returned from their bye in Week 10.
In their game against the Buccaneers, Pearsall displayed the highlight-reel abilities that made him a first-round pick, but it was actually Jennings and McCaffrey that saw the most targets in the game. Jennings also led the team’s WRs in snaps (58) and routes (38), with Samuel coming in second (50 snaps, 32 routes) and Pearsall in third (41 snaps, 28 routes).
With Kittle out this past week against the Seahawks, Samuel saw an uptick in time on the field that led to him leading the team in routes. But it was still Jennings who earned the most volume in the passing game, while holding a 3:2 advantage over Pearsall in routes run. Pearsall also displayed the hit-or-miss aspect of his profile by scoring zero fantasy points after failing to reel in either of his two targets against Seattle.
Despite looking like a potential one-hit wonder earlier in the season, Jennings has actually been putting together one of the most impressive seasons of any WR in the NFL. Jennings has been Purdy’s favorite target in both games following the bye, with the receiver putting together his second WR1 performance of the season in Week 11.
Jennings and Samuel were both highlighted in last week’s Advanced WR Stats article, but for different reasons. After being one of the best WRs in recent memory with the ball in his hands, Samuel has taken a step back in that regard this season. While Samuel is still elite in some aspects of yards after the catch, it is actually Jennings who beats out his teammate in all aspects of evasion percentage to lead the 49ers’ WRs in 2024. And it is not just after the catch that Jennings has been efficient, as he has been able to convert 74% of his intended air yards this season, a mark that ranks above the 90th-percentile of WR seasons from 2019 to 2023.
Jennings’ recent spike in production does not seem to be a flash in the pan, and his connection with Purdy this season has been undeniable. The same can be said for Purdy’s connection with Kittle, and the two receivers should continue to be the primary focuses of the passing game when they are on the field this season.
The 49ers schedule does get more challenging from here on out, as their WRs face the third-most difficult schedule for the position from Week 12 through Week 17, while the TEs face the league’s 13th-most difficult schedule.
49ERS WR SOS WEEK 12-17
49ERS TE SOS WEEK 12-17
Whenever Kittle is on the field, he is an elite option for fantasy managers at TE. Even with his slight decrease in production, Samuel’s dynamism in both the rushing and passing game make him an easy start as a WR2. Jennings should also be a shoe-in for fantasy lineups as a drop-in replacement for the role Aiyuk has had in the offense over the past couple seasons. Pearsall will remain a boom/bust FLEX option, with equal chances of going off for either 20 or zero fantasy points in any given week.
While the 49ers have not lived up to their normal standards to this point of 2024, their passing game is starting to whip into shape for the home stretch. With so many weapons on offense, there are bound to be down weeks for each of the team’s receivers. But with the upside we have consistently seen from San Francisco’s offense in recent years, the sweet should far outweigh the sour.
