49ers roster 2023: Chris Conley a dark-horse veteran to make the team

The 49ers inked veteran wide receiver Chris Conley during the offseason, and he has better than an outsider's chance to make the 53-man roster.

The days of veteran wide receiver Chris Conley being a modest No. 2 option on an OK roster have probably passed, and it's not likely he'll ever eclipse his career-best 2019 season with the Jacksonville Jaguars when he had 775 receiving yards and five touchdowns.

Particularly when considering the logjam of receivers in front of him on his new team, the San Francisco 49ers.

The Niners signed the 30-year-old Conley back on April 17, giving him a one-year deal in order to beef up what is still a questionable back end of the receiving depth chart.

Ahead of Conley, though, players like Brandon Aiyuk and All-Pro Deebo Samuel reside and aren't about to be booted down the depth chart outside of suffering some sort of injury.

Even San Francisco's third and fourth wide receivers, Jauan Jennings and Ray-Ray McCloud, figure to play more important roles than Conley.

Assuming the latter makes the 53-man roster out of training camp, of course.

Why did the 49ers sign Chris Conley in NFL free agency?

Head coach Kyle Shanahan has admitted multiple times that the position he's the toughest on is wide receiver. And there are a few younger players toward the back end of the depth chart who may need some veteran's assistance.

Perhaps that's where Conley came in. While Conley has never been a superstar, he's had a respectable career dating back to when the Kansas City Chiefs grabbed him in Round 3 of the 2015 NFL Draft.

Also, according to his spider chart, Conley offers up a few things that stand out in contrast to some of the 49ers' other receivers on the roster:

Conley might not have that same speed as he did in the immediate years after he was drafted. But he still has a straight-line threat. That, combined with his 6-foot-3 and 205-pound frame, could make for a promising combination that could edge out another fringe wide receiver like Danny Gray or even the seventh-round rookie, Ronnie Bell.

Either way, signing Conley will ultimately push those two younger weapons.

Read more: ESPN points out painful truth about Deebo Samuel, Brandon Aiyuk

Will Chris Conley make 49ers' 53-man roster?

If one was to look solely at the names and the depth chart, the likeliest of answers would be that Conley is definitely on the weaker side of the roster bubble heading into training camp.

Shanahan has leaned toward veteran receivers for many years now, but Conley being on the wrong side of 30 years old and not having any chance to unseat either Samuel or Aiyuk won't bode well for him whatsoever.

That said, there is a caveat.

Conley's one-year deal is worth up to $1.093 million, according to Over the Cap, but $400,000 of that is fully guaranteed.

That's significant for a veteran's minimum deal. In contrast, should the Niners elect to waive Bell prior to Week 1 of the regular season, they'd be out only $19,446 in dead money this year.

San Francisco won't keep Conley strictly because of his guaranteed money, but that could factor into whether or not he's a fifth- or sixth-best option on a six-man wide receiver room.

That alone gives him a shot at making the 53-man roster in 2023 despite seemingly having long odds.

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