No. 2: High-quality veteran receiver help for 49ers with Rod Tidwell
The 49ers are currently in a strange place in terms of their wide receiver room as 2020 training camp looms.
Injuries to budding star wideout Deebo Samuel and the aforementioned Richie James, along with unknowns regarding players like Trent Taylor, Jalen Hurd and Dante Pettis, leave the Niners receiver corps full of bodies, many of whom come with questions.
So why not add another receiver to the group, albeit one who has a history of being a bit of a primadonna.
The room is perfect for former Arizona Cardinals’ receiver Rod Tidwell, played by Academy Award winner Cuba Gooding, Jr. in the film Jerry Maguire.
Tidwell is the eponymous character’s (played by Tom Cruise) only client when he decides to leave his massive sports agency group to pursue a different kind of player management. But while the receiver is known to be a good player, he’s also seen as a wild card who talks a little too much about his contract.
With the current state of the 49ers locker room, it seems reasonable that they could bring in a veteran who can often be perceived as living on a razor’s edge. Plus, Tidwell definitely seemed to grow up as his relationship with Maguire blossomed and he received a much-desired contract extension from the Cardinals.
The chance to stick it to his former team twice a year would also be nice for the often petty Tidwell, but mostly the 49ers would bring him in because of his fearless nature as a football player, an attribute that would be essential to the growth of many of the young players in the wide receiver unit.