The 49ers are heading into Sunday’s meeting with the Broncos carrying a thin wide receiver room, and that puts Kyle Shanahan in a tricky spot. With a long list of lingering injuries already on the roster, Mike Evans has been questionable all week and is expected to be limited. If Denver’s Pat Surtain II spends most of the afternoon locked onto Evans, Brock Purdy will need production from Deebo Samuel, Brandin Cooks, and Jordan Watkins on the outside.
That’s where the decision gets interesting. The temptation may be to lean on Cooks, the veteran who arrived in San Francisco less than two weeks ago. But the better move, at least in this moment, is to keep feeding Watkins.
Watkins has spent his early time in the league showing exactly the kind of approach coaches tend to trust. He went from being a healthy scratch and watching from the sideline to asking his head coach what he needed to do to earn more snaps.
That kind of persistence is starting to matter. Last week against the Arizona Cardinals, he caught two passes for 60 yards, including a 34-yard grab that showed he can threaten defenses down the field.
Shanahan’s trust in him has already started to grow.
Cooks is the safer name, but the 33-year-old does not offer San Francisco any real long-term upside. He hasn’t topped 300 receiving yards since 2023, and with the 49ers missing so many of their deep threats for most of the season, he looks more like a temporary fix than a true answer.
Watkins, meanwhile, is the player who could actually change something for this offense. He may never be the top target, but his effort and dependability have put him in position to carve out a real role. And with the 49ers sitting at 3-0, they have enough room to see what happens when they give him more chances.
That’s the call here: not the cautious one, but the one with upside. If San Francisco is serious about finding out what it has, Week 4 is the time to let Watkins play.
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49ers Week 4 Outlook Suddenly Hinges On One Late Decision
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49ers Linked To A Draft Back For Life After Christian McCaffrey
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For the 49ers, the appeal is less about asking White to carry a heavy weekly load and more about the idea of a change-of-pace runner who fits alongside bigger personnel decisions at the position. His profile suggests a player who can complement a more physical inside option, which makes him the kind of draft name worth tracking as the process moves forward. [Read more 🡒]