Kendrick Bourne could play significant role for 49ers in 2020

The San Francisco 49ers have question marks at wide receiver in 2020, yet one of them is whether or not Kendrick Bourne assumes an even greater role this upcoming season.

While his role diminished somewhat in 2019, San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Kendrick Bourne still enjoyed a solid year of production for an offense which ended up going all the way to Super Bowl LIV against the Kansas City Chiefs.

Bourne, a 2017 undrafted free agent, has solidified himself in head coach Kyle Shanahan’s offense, particularly within the red zone, where his five receiving touchdowns were tied with tight end George Kittle for the team lead last season.

And while Bourne only netted 358 receiving yards on the year, largely due to the Niners’ midseason acquisition of veteran wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders at the NFL trade deadline, Bourne was still a major factor in key situations.

Especially that 3rd-and-16 catch against the Los Angeles Rams to help set up a game-winning field goal for San Francisco in Week 16:

Heading into the 2020 offseason, Bourne has something of an uncertain future with the team, although it’s more in terms of contractual obligations than anything else. The former Eastern Washington product is a restricted free agent this offseason, looking to cash in somewhat after his relatively low-cost undrafted-rookie three-year, $1.67 million deal.

The 49ers will almost assuredly bring Bourne back on an original-round tender — explained in further detail here — which would cost the team just over $2.1 million for the upcoming season.

Considering that number, it would be money well spent.

Bourne had some drops on the year — four, according to Pro Football Focus — yet head coach Kyle Shanahan never shied away from defending one of his best red-zone weapons.

“Bourne, I’ll always put him up there,” Shanahan said last November, via NBC Sports Bay Area. “I think Bourne has as good of hands as anyone in this league, and sometimes when you do that, you don’t focus, you don’t concentrate on it because you’re never scared of dropping it.”

Now, the question is what kind of role Bourne would assume in 2020.

Sanders is hitting free agency. And while it seems plausible the 49ers would like him back, a limited amount of cap space could ultimately mean they let the 32-year-old receiver hit the open market.

And that limited cap room probably means no other big-name free agents come to San Francisco, either.

Granted, the 2020 NFL Draft is awfully deep at wide receiver, and it would be shocking if Shanahan didn’t dip into that pool at least a little bit. Even so, there are only a handful of on-roster options capable of competing with Bourne for a significant role this upcoming season. Two-year pro Dante Pettis all but disappeared from Shanahan’s game plan in 2019, while receivers Trent Taylor and Jalen Hurd spent the entire season on injured reserve.

It’s not without reason Bourne assumes the kind of role Sanders held last season, particularly if paired well enough with second-year pro Deebo Samuel, who already flashed the potential to be a big-name player.

One who could take a lot of pressure off a player like Bourne.

And if Bourne winds up being an excellent impact piece, he’d be just one more example of the 49ers finding late-round or undrafted gems and developing them into major contributors.