The 49ers came out of their 19-13 preseason loss to the Tennessee Titans with a problem that goes well beyond the final score.
For a team trying to sort out the back end of the roster before Kyle Shanahan has to settle on his final 53-man group at the end of August, the tight end room looked alarmingly light in the opener. San Francisco used only Brayden Willis and Josiah Deguara at the position, and neither gave the offense much in the passing game.
Willis didn’t come down with either of his two targets. Deguara caught two passes for 12 yards on four targets. That’s not much production, but the bigger concern is what it says about the depth chart behind George Kittle.
Right now, the 49ers are leaning hard on Kittle to return to form after the torn Achilles. Behind him, Jake Tonges is the next name up after turning into a dependable option last season, and Luke Farrell brings experience but not much as a receiving threat. That leaves San Francisco in a shaky spot if Kittle isn’t available or isn’t right.
The preseason opener didn’t do anything to ease that concern. There was no real sign that Willis or Deguara is ready to step into a bigger role, and the group still looks short on answers if Kittle is sidelined.
The draft would have been a natural time to attack the issue and add a rookie who could both help immediately with depth and develop into a possible long-term answer. Instead, the 49ers are still looking at a tight end room that feels overly dependent on Kittle and thin everywhere else.
It wouldn’t be fair to bury Willis and Deguara off one exhibition game, and they’ll get more chances over the next two preseason matchups. But the larger problem remains: San Francisco isn’t exactly loaded with options, and Tonges, for all he provided last year, was a player who went multiple games without a catch.
There is still time for the 49ers to find something better before the season begins. Kittle is trending toward being ready for Week 1, which is obviously the best-case outcome. But the Titans game was a reminder that San Francisco has not really insulated itself against the possibility of another setback.
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For San Francisco, the most useful part of the night may have been seeing where the thin spots show up when the rotations get deeper and the pace quickens. The play-by-play told a story of a team still sorting out its second unit on both sides of the ball, and the kind of early preseason test that can clarify which positions need the most attention before the games start counting. [Read more 🡒]