The San Francisco 49ers showed everyone they weren't content at wide receiver after signing veteran Mike Evans by bringing in another veteran, Christian Kirk.
This move makes the depth chart look a lot better, but it also spells doom for two young wide receivers.
While Kirk may not have the Hall of Fame pedigree of Evans, the former has been a solid receiver and provides the Niners with the deep threat they were sorely missing last season. While his stats have not been all that impressive the last two years, he's nevertheless filling a hole on San Francisco's offense.
However, Kirk is also potentially blocking two young receivers in Jacob Cowing and Jordan Watkins.
Neither player saw very much action last season as Cowing missed the whole year due to injury, and Watkins was sidelined due to injury early on and was limited to just four games his rookie year in what largely amounted to a redshirt season.
Even after the Evans signing, San Francisco's wide receiver depth chart looked a bit hairy. Evans and Ricky Pearsall as WRs 1 and 2 looks pretty good if you forget the injury history for both players. But if those guys go down, then San Francisco would be looking at Cowing and Watkins playing a big role, something very unclear if they are capable of doing.
Head coach Kyle Shanahan does not go easy on his young receivers, so the young duo would've seen an uphill climb for playing time on offense no matter what, but the Kirk signing creates a little more assurance in the wide receiver room and provides some much-needed veteran depth.
It doesn't help matters that the 49ers still seem likely to draft a wide receiver at some point next month. While they may not go with a wide receiver in Round 1, they will still probably select one at some point, so that's yet another guy Cowing and Watkins will have to compete with.
Perhaps the two receivers' clearest path to playing time now is on special teams. Kick and punt returner Skyy Moore signed with the Green Bay Packers in free agency, so the Niners are going have to figure out who is going to field and return kicks next season.
Maybe if Cowing or Watkins can impress on that front, it could lead to more opportunities on offense, but the Kirk signing is only going to make that more difficult for both.