49ers depth chart: Predicting wide receiver room for Week 1

Wide receivers who won’t make 49ers’ 53-man roster

Sorry, folks. It doesn’t pan out for these current Niners wideouts, at least not right away:

• River Cracraft
• Jauan Jennings
• Shawn Poindexter
• Kevin White
• Tavon Austin
• Jalen Hurd
• J.J. Nelson

Richie James’ injury could have kept him off the 53-man roster, but his return coinciding with Tavon Austin landing on IR with a knee injury at the tail end of camp tells you what you need to know about San Francisco’s return situation.

Cracraft, aside from having a cool name, was also in line for a potential return role. But considering James is back, it’s likely Cracraft was brought in merely for competition and depth.

Poindexter, who tore his ACL in the preseason last year and missed his rookie season, likely needs another season to fully develop his skill set. Not having spring workouts, minicamps and OTAs, due to the worldwide pandemic hurt his chances significantly.

The same could be said of Jennings, the 49ers’ final pick of this year’s draft, who has flashed impressive catches here and there during training camp, but for the most part, he’s looked too inconsistent and raw to be worthy of a roster spot.

Then there’s White, the Chicago Bears’ Round 1 pick from the 2015 NFL Draft.

Sure, it’s fun to get hyped about landing a former first-round selection. But White, for injury reasons and otherwise, flamed out in Chicago after his four years there and never caught on for the Arizona Cardinals last season.

No reason to expect anything changes with San Francisco, especially with him being signed so late into the offseason program.