Nobody in San Francisco’s front office is sounding alarms over Stefon Diggs. The 49ers already have a crowded receiver room, and it’s not hard to see why. Mike Evans was the headline addition, Ricky Pearsall is healthy enough to help, and De’Zhaun Stribling came in with real upside as a second-round pick.
After that, the depth chart keeps getting tighter. Christian Kirk, Jacob Cowing, and Jordan Watkins are all in the mix, while undrafted players are trying to push veterans for the last roster spots.
That’s not a group begging for another receiver. It’s a group with more bodies than openings.
Still, ESPN analyst and former NFL general manager Mike Tannenbaum thinks San Francisco should keep digging for one more veteran. His case is built on the 49ers’ history of squeezing short-term production out of older players, with Diggs as the latest name in that mold.
"I look at San Francisco and even though they added Mike Evans and drafted Stribling in the second round, I still think if they brought in one more veteran receiver for a team that is in a win now mode, I think you'd get one year out of Stefon Diggs," Tannenbaum said.
The problem is the cap picture. Cheap deals for Cowing, Watkins, or an undrafted player matter because they leave San Francisco flexibility for 2027, when the salary bill comes due.
Diggs would cost more and would not clean up the biggest issue in the room. Washington is the neater fit, especially with Deebo Samuel gone there.
Per former NFL wide receiver T.J. Houshmandzadeh, the Brandon Aiyuk move to the Commanders is dead.
Diggs would be walking into targets there. In San Francisco, he would be fighting Evans and Pearsall for them.
The more interesting money play in San Francisco might be at linebacker, where the 49ers are making a $4.88 million bet on Jaden Dugger and, by extension, betting that Dre Greenlaw can’t fully get back to where he was.
Two offseason moves at linebacker deserve more attention than they’ve gotten. Dee Winters left for Dallas.
Greenlaw returned after Denver cut him loose one year into a three-year, $35 million deal. His Achilles tear in Super Bowl LVIII happened while he was running onto the field, which made the recovery even more unusual.
The long road back has already shown up in Denver’s results, and counting on Greenlaw to be the same player again is more wish than plan.
Dugger is the cheaper, more controllable answer. He came out of Penn Hills (Pa.)
High School as a zero-star recruit, signed with Georgetown, and played safety there before earning All-Patriot League honors as a sophomore in 2023. Louisiana gave him another shot and moved him to off-ball linebacker.
In 2025, he delivered 125 tackles, 13 tackles for loss, 4.0 sacks, and an interception, good enough for All-Sun Belt Conference recognition.
The combine never called. Dugger still ran 4.61 seconds at Louisiana’s Pro Day, and now he’s the kind of low-cost swing that could matter a lot more to San Francisco than another veteran receiver ever would.
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