San Francisco 49ers: 3 wide receivers facing uncertain futures in 2020

No. 1: Marquise Goodwin

Kyle Shanahan also had some provocative words about the final player on this list, whose tenure with the 49ers beyond this offseason is squarely in doubt: Marquise Goodwin.

San Francisco 49ers

Per Matt Maiocco:

"We don’t want to release Marquise. He’s too valuable. I know he fell out of the rotation last year, then he had an injury that he wanted to go on IR so he could go get it cleaned up, and I think it is right now. But Quise is a guy who can play in this league and if he’s on our team, he is going to be competing with that group. And if not, I feel pretty confident that another team would want him."

Goodwin has had some tough breaks ever since nearly reaching 1,000 yards — a career high — his first season with the 49ers back in 2017. There were family tragedies, injuries and more. As a result, the 29-year-old Goodwin played in only 20 games the last two seasons, relegated to a mere 581 combined receiving yards those two years.

So it makes sense there’s chatter about the 49ers releasing the speedster this offseason, generating a would-be $3.656 million in cap space with $1.25 million in dead money, according to Over the Cap.

Shanahan’s comments suggest the Niners won’t release Goodwin, however. Yet the second part hints at the possibility of San Francisco attempting to trade him to a wide receiver-needy team, even if the likelihood of a big return is extremely low.

Either way, Shanahan’s statements put Goodwin squarely on this list, when matched with the talk elsewhere, points to the receiver not being in a 49ers uniform come the start of the regular season.

Perhaps sooner.