3 positional needs the 49ers may have to bypass in the NFL Draft

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LOS ANGELES, CA – DECEMBER 31: Jimmy Garoppolo #10 of the San Francisco 49ers looks on after completing a pass to Kendrick Bourne #84 during the third quarter against Los Angeles Rams during the third quarter at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on December 31, 2017 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images) /

No. 3: Wide receiver

Heading into free agency, wide receiver Allen Robinson was one of the more coveted players on the open market. San Francisco became a common landing spot for Robinson in the NFL rumor mill.

But, it turns out the team didn’t even attempt to make a serious run at Robinson in their free agency endeavors.

When you factor in comments made by Shanahan about having a top wide receiver to Jennifer Lee Chan of Niners Nation, it makes sense.

"You definitely don’t need that, Shanahan said. If you ever have it, then keep it. It’s very fun to have, and it’ll help you a ton. But that’s not something that you need. You need guys who can beat man-to-man coverage. You need guys who are explosive enough to scare the secondary so it can open up your play action game, and you need guys who can separate on third down. That doesn’t have to be a receiver. You want it to be all five of your eligibles. You’d like that to be three of your receivers, your tight end, your running back, or you can bring in a fullback and now it’s two of your receivers and one tight end. There’s lots of different things you can do, but you need the threat of it all and you want to balance it out that way."

Obviously, paying a significant amount of money to a wide receiver wasn’t a route Shanahan felt comfortable taking. It also appears that Shanahan is very confident in the group he has right now, which consists of Pierre Garçon, Marquise Goodwin, Trent Taylor and Kendrick Bourne as the main receiving options.

Garçon was on pace for an 1,000-yard receiving season before sustaining a neck injury in October. Keep in mind, that was with Brian Hoyer and C.J. Beathard playing quarterback.

Goodwin had his best season of his four-year career, and would have most likely netted a 1,000-yard receiving season (962 yards was the final tally) had he not being injured in the season finale against the Los Angeles Rams.

Taylor, a fifth-round draft selection, showed that he has some of the surest hands on the team last season and became a favorite of quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo’s. In the five games with Garoppolo under center, Taylor amassed 44.4 percent of his season yardage total.

Then there’s the biggest surprise of them all, undrafted rookie Kendrick Bourne. Coming out of FCS-level Eastern Washington University — full disclosure: I am a current student at the school — Bourne faced an uphill battle to make the roster.

Bourne was one of the final 53 players on the roster come Week 1, but did remain inactive for the beginning portion of the season. Despite this, Shanahan had high praise for Bourne (via Matt Maiocoo of NBC Sports Bay Area):

"He took a huge step last year, Shanahan said. I know he wasn’t totally ready at the beginning of the year, but he was a guy that we thought had too much talent to put on the practice squad. We were scared that we’d lose him. I think he was a little overwhelmed at first, but he kept battling through it. Even when we would ride him he didn’t go into a shell. He kept working. He and our receiving coach, Mike LaFleur, put in a lot of time together in learning the stuff."

All of this leads to one conclusion for myself — taking a wide receiver early in the draft carries little logic. Yes, the 49ers don’t have a “1A” type receiver, a la Julio Jones, Antonio Brown, Odell Beckham Jr., etc.

But, as Shanahan noted, that isn’t necessarily needed to succeed. And San Francisco seems content with their current group, who did produce in 2017 and have shown promise.