The 49ers’ wide receiver depth chart looks substantially different following free agency, and Kyle Shanahan is clearly confident it is in a much stronger position than in 2025.
While the inevitable departure of Brandon Aiyuk is on hold as the 49ers attempt to get something in return for their 2020 first-round pick, the 49ers have seen Kendrick Bourne and Skyy Moore depart for pastures new and predictably allowed Jauan Jennings to walk, though he has not yet been signed by another team.
The two additions have seen San Francisco address the hole left by Aiyuk at X receiver by signing six-time Pro Bowler Mike Evans and bring in veteran Christian Kirk to add a speed element to their passing game.
Evans was one of the most dependable receivers in football over the course of his time with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and, while he turns 33 in August and is coming off a broken collarbone, his ball dominance should be a huge asset to the Niners, especially in the red zone, where the 49ers need to take some of the onus off Christian McCaffrey.
Kirk was arguably a slightly more curious addition given he only had 239 yards and one touchdown in the 2025 regular season for the Houston Texans.
However, Kirk exploded into life in the postseason, catching eight passes for 144 yards and a score in the wild-card round win over the Pittsburgh Steelers before then finding the endzone again in the divisional round loss to the New England Patriots.
And it is that ability to deliver when it counts that forms part of the reason why head coach Kyle Shanahan was so excited to get both Evans and Kirk on the depth chart.
“Watching him on film this year, I think he looks like the same guy he’s always looked,” Shanahan said of Kirk. “Yeah, he had a couple of injuries that set him back, but when he came back from them, he’s the same dude he’s always been.
“He competes, he blocks. I love getting, for lack of a better word, ‘men’ at the position, which is guys who’ve done it before, and nothing’s too big for them.”
It is a familiar assessment from Shanahan, who often talks about getting players for whom the game is not “too big”.
Last season, amid injuries at the position and Aiyuk’s self-imposed exile, San Francisco did not have many receivers with the requisite experience to make them consistently reliable in the passing game.
They were, of course, able to consistently lean on Jennings to come through in clutch situations, while Demarcus Robinson was a star performer in the wild-card win over the Philadelphia Eagles with 111 yards and a touchdown. Bourne had a couple of remarkable games and, while lacking significant experience, Ricky Pearsall displayed his readiness for big moments even in an injury-disrupted season.
Still, come the end of an impressive 2025 campaign, the lack of established playmakers with the ability to truly strike fear into opponents could not have been more obvious as the Niners were decimated by a ferocious Seattle Seahawks defense.
In that sense, the 49ers’ decision not to go with a youth movement at receiver makes sense. The 49ers have Jordan Watkins and Jacob Cowing as speed options at receiver, but neither has played enough to have earned the faith of Shanahan. The counter argument would be that such players can only earn his trust through playing, but the shape of the depth chart at the end of last season helps explain why the Niners were happy to sign a 29-year-old Kirk coming off a disappointing year of production and elect not to put faith in Watkins and Cowing.
San Francisco’s progression to the divisional round amid incessant injuries underlined that the 49ers are not far away from seriously contending for the title. While the 49ers will look for Pearsall to stay healthy and take the next step and will almost certainly draft another receiver from a strong class, in the mind of Shanahan this is not a time for the Niners to put all their eggs in the basket of potential at receiver.
The 49ers needed ‘men’ at wideout, and have added two in a pair of high-floor players. If they can successfully elevate the passing game while helping develop Pearsall and the rookie the Niners will likely add, then San Francisco’s bet on free agent experience will be a successful one.
