The San Francisco 49ers made numerous improvements to the roster in 2019, which hopefully translates to these five statistical categories trending the right direction.
Generally speaking, teams which go 4-12 over a regular NFL season don’t fare too well, statistically.
This was the case for the San Francisco 49ers of 2018 who, despite posting a slightly less-than-middle-of-the-pack offense, boasted the league’s fifth-worst scoring defense and gave up the second most pass touchdowns (35) over the course of the season.
There were plenty of other problems, too.
General manager John Lynch and head coach Kyle Shanahan are going to be under a bit more pressure this year to get back to the .500 mark after two seasons where the win total has equaled just 10 combined.
A number of the Niners’ offseason moves — including adding edge rushers Dee Ford and Nick Bosa, acquired in a trade from the Kansas City Chiefs and with their top pick in the 2019 NFL Draft, respectively — should help matters a lot on the defensive side of the ball.
Yet all the 49ers’ statistical woes from 2018 aren’t solely on the offensive side of the ball.
There are some offensive concerns, too, and those are just as real as the lack of sacks, turnovers and interceptions.
If San Francisco wants to get above the .500 mark in 2019, and potentially compete for a playoff spot this season, these five statistical categories will need to see some significant improvement over the course of the year.
No. 5: Receiving Yards from Wide Receivers
The 49ers were fortunate to get a record-setting 2018 campaign from tight end George Kittle. Take away his 1,377 receiving yards from last year, though, and the Niners offense would have boasted a mere 2,490 yards of pass offense.
That would have ranked dead last in the league, even below the 2,523 yards posted by the lowly Arizona Cardinals last year.
San Francisco failed to produce a single 500-yard wide receiver last season, and the numbers from this crop aren’t at all impressive:
| Game | Game | Rece | Rece | Rece | Rece | Rece | Rece | Rece | Rece | Rece | Rece | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Player | Age | Pos | G | GS | Tgt | Rec | Yds | Y/R | TD | Lng | R/G | Y/G | Ctch% | Y/Tgt | Fmb |
| 11 | Marquise Goodwin | 28 | WR | 11 | 8 | 43 | 23 | 395 | 17.2 | 4 | 67 | 2.1 | 35.9 | 53.5% | 9.2 | 1 |
| 18 | Dante Pettis | 23 | wr | 12 | 7 | 45 | 27 | 467 | 17.3 | 5 | 75 | 2.3 | 38.9 | 60.0% | 10.4 | 2 |
| 84 | Kendrick Bourne | 23 | WR | 16 | 8 | 66 | 42 | 487 | 11.6 | 4 | 33 | 2.6 | 30.4 | 63.6% | 7.4 | 1 |
| 81 | Trent Taylor | 24 | 14 | 0 | 41 | 26 | 215 | 8.3 | 1 | 23 | 1.9 | 15.4 | 63.4% | 5.2 | 1 | |
| 15 | Pierre Garcon | 32 | WR | 8 | 8 | 46 | 24 | 286 | 11.9 | 1 | 25 | 3.0 | 35.8 | 52.2% | 6.2 | 0 |
| 13 | Richie James | 23 | wr | 13 | 2 | 14 | 9 | 130 | 14.4 | 1 | 53 | 0.7 | 10.0 | 64.3% | 9.3 | 2 |
| 17 | Victor Bolden | 23 | 4 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 10 | 10.0 | 0 | 10 | 0.3 | 2.5 | 25.0% | 2.5 | 0 |
Provided by Pro-Football-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 5/5/2019.
The good news, however, is quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo should return healthy from his torn ACL suffered early last season, thereby stabilizing the passing game.
Additionally, opposing defenses are going to look at stopping Kittle, which should open up opportunities for the 49ers’ other pass catchers.
And if rookie wide receiver Deebo Samuel, who appears to be tailor made for Shanahan’s system, winds up making a moderate impact in year one, the remaining Niners wideouts should benefit quite a bit.
Plus, at the least, there’s bound to be a nice little competition at this position in training camp, bolstering the regular-season results.