SF 49ers position grades from lopsided Week 3 win vs. NY Giants

SF 49ers Offensive Skill Players

When it comes to rushing the ball, the SF 49ers clearly miss superstar tight end George Kittle, since the Niners offensive line just can’t push around defenses on its own.

As a result, the team only had 62 yards on 28 carries with most of the rushing yards coming from wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk.

That being said, both Jerick McKinnon and Jeff Wilson had rushing touchdowns on the day, while Wilson claimed the sole receiving touchdown from the team.

Wilson has three catches for 54 yards plus the score, McKinnon snagged three of his four targets for 39 yards and even debutant JaMycal Hasty chipped in with a pass for 8 yards.

So it wasn’t all bad for the running backs.

This is essentially the Aiyuk and Kendrick Bourne grade after they were the only receivers to have multiple catches on the day, but what a performance both had.

Bourne was his usual dependable self, with four catches for 63 yards as he becomes beacon of consistency for the team.

Trent Taylor and Mohamed Sanu both caught the ball once, albeit both good catches for first down, but the real story is that this was the game where head coach Kyle Shanahan unleashed Aiyuk on the world.

Aiyuk was targeted eight times (a large amount for a receiver in the Shanahan offense) and caught five of them for 70 yards, and he also ran some Deebo Samuel-style sweeps and ran three times for 31 yards and his first-ever touchdown in the pros:

https://twitter.com/49ers/status/1310295562340581376

The team must be salivating at the idea of having Samuel and Aiyuk on the field at once. Both are very similar in skill set and can be used to misdirect the offense.

It was truly fun to watch Shanahan scheme Aiyuk into the game and subsequently into prominence.

Poor Jordan Reed.

He had a great game for the 49ers last week and looked set to pick up where he left off after a couple of catches, but then the suspiciously loose turf of the stadium struck again and he hurt his leg trying to grab a touchdown at the back of the end zone.

Unfortunately, the pass was a fraction long and his foot went out of bounds. How bad he’s hurt remains to be seen.

Ross Dwelley had a good first half with four catches for 49 yards and looked set for a huge day, but Nick Mullens didn’t target him again for the rest of the game.