The 49ers got their season started with a clean 27-7 win over the Los Angeles Rams in Melbourne, Australia, and the offense had plenty of juice in the opener. San Francisco piled up 379 total yards. But the night also came with a setback: second-round draft pick De’Zhaun Stribling was ruled out early with a deltoid ligament sprain.
That injury changes the early shape of the receiver room. Stribling is expected to miss at least a month while he continues weighing treatment options, and the 49ers now have to absorb the production they had lined up for him in his rookie year.
Against the Rams, the response came from elsewhere. Demarcus Robinson and Deebo Samuel Sr. helped cover the workload that was supposed to be Stribling’s.
Robinson caught two passes for 50 yards and a touchdown, with the biggest play coming on a 39-yard deep score in the second quarter. Samuel added six catches for 48 yards and found the end zone early in the fourth quarter.
Mike Evans also stood out as the group’s top target, finishing with six receptions for 49 yards and several key third-down conversions. He scored on a fade route to open the third quarter.
For the 49ers, that distribution may be the right template moving forward. Rather than leaning too hard on Evans early, the plan should be to spread the ball around and use each receiver to what he does best.
Given his injury history, the focus should be on getting him through the season and into the kind of late-game situations that matter most. San Francisco already showed last week that it can do that.
Stribling’s absence also opens the door for Jordan Watkins, who was inactive as a healthy scratch against the Rams. Watkins is entering his second year in the system and still hasn’t logged extended regular-season run, but this is the kind of stretch where he can push for a bigger role.
He flashed in the preseason, and if the opportunity comes, production will matter. This could be a make-or-break run of games.
If Watkins gets that chance, his role would likely resemble Robinson’s: stretching the field on deep routes, being dependable underneath, and staying on the field in run situations because of his blocking.
Jacob Cowing is another name to watch. He could get work in the slot in the role Stribling was expected to fill, using his speed on crossing routes and after-the-catch chances. The question there is whether he can hold up in the run game, since he is undersized and may not match Stribling’s blocking value.
More realistically, Kyle Shanahan is likely to keep leaning on George Kittle, Kyle Juszczyk and Christian McCaffrey in the passing game. McCaffrey remains one of the team’s best pass catchers, and Kittle - coming off an Achilles injury - should see his usage rise as he gets more games under his belt.
That makes the next stretch a useful test for the receiver depth behind the top options. It starts Sunday, when the 49ers return home to face the Miami Dolphins at 1:25 p.m. at Levi’s Stadium.
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For the 49ers, Samuels debut mattered because this was never just about adding another familiar name to the receiver room, but about whether the move would actually hold up once the games counted. His early production helped San Francisco in Week 1, yet it also sharpened the larger conversation around how these offseason bets are being judged almost immediately, especially when a single game can make one front office look prescient and another look exposed before September is even underway. [Read more 🡒]