The San Francisco 49ers significantly overhauled their wide receiver room during the offseason, more or less bidding farewell to two longtime incumbents, Jauan Jennings and Brandon Aiyuk, before onboarding two well-known free agents in Mike Evans and Christian Kirk.
And while Aiyuk is still on the roster, technically, it's only a matter of time before the Niners officially issue him his walking papers.
Yet San Francisco didn't stop there with the revamping efforts, opting to use its first pick in the 2026 NFL Draft on Ole Miss wide receiver De'Zhaun Stribling, who'll be hard pressed to make a major impact early on, given the depth, but could end up playing a significant role as his rookie year progresses.
So, how would one go about formulating the depth chart? Some names are easy. Some aren't.
Predicting 49ers WR depth chart: The back end gets awfully questionable
- Mike Evans
- Ricky Pearsall
- Christian Kirk
- De'Zhaun Stribling
- Demarcus Robinson
- Jacob Cowing
In the mix: Junior Bergen, Malik Turner, Jordan Watkins
Evans is the clear-cut WR1, no questions there. But there may be some slight argument about the No. 2 opposite him. An early guess would be the 49ers want to max out Pearsall's value after spending a 2024 first-round pick on him, but in light of his injury-plagued two seasons at the pro level, one can question just how much he'll be counted upon to contribute.
At least Pearsall has delivered in several key moments, when healthy.
Kirk, the other elder stateman, certainly pushes Robinson down the depth chart a lot and will likely kick off the regular season ahead of Stribling, potentially giving way to the rookie as the year draws on.
Robinson, meanwhile, is an interesting commodity. Nearly a complete non-impact player last season, aside from a massive showing in the Wild Card win over the Philadelphia Eagles, Robinson nevertheless has $2 million in guaranteed money this season, which is a pretty good indicator he'll hang around in one capacity or another.
The final two spots, assuming the Niners keep six receivers in total, are where things truly get interesting.
It's likely a battle between Cowing and Watkins, neither of whom have made substantial impact on offense to date. But, after saying farewell to last year's kick-return specialist, Skyy Moore, it wouldn't be a shock if Cowing winds up back in that stead over Watkins.
It'll be up to training camp battles to determine that fate, though.
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