Ranking 49ers 3 best candidates for No. 3 wide receiver

49ers Option No. 3: Richie James

First on the list is the wideout who has been with the 49ers the longest, 2018 seventh-round draft pick Richie James.

To say that James hasn’t been given the opportunity to make a bigger impact on the 49ers during his tenure is a complicated statement. He’s played in 40 games over three seasons, featuring as a starter for 10 of those contests, including seven starts during the injury-plagued 2020 season.

But his 23 catches from last year were a career-high, having hauled in just nine and six receptions during his previous two campaigns, respectively, although he did average 27.5 yards per catch in his sophomore season. Of those 23 receptions in 2020, however, nine of them came in his career-best performance on Thursday Night Football against the Green Bay Packers in November, which doesn’t speak volumes about the rest of his season.

He’s also been one of the 49ers’ key return men, amassing 98 total returns (51 punts, 47 kickoffs) for 1,454 yards and one very memorable touchdown in his rookie year.

The question isn’t really whether he can do the job so much as it is whether he can do the job consistently over the course of an entire season.

And the case could be made either way.

The Packers game from last year indicates he can, but most of the rest of his career — where his previous high for receptions in a game was three in the final game of his rookie season — doesn’t fill you with a lot of hope that he will.

But as he enters the final year of his rookie deal, James might be primed to show the 49ers that he’s ready to take the next step.

If he does so, he could be an ideal candidate to line up along with Samuel and Aiyuk in three-receiver sets.