The 49ers may not be getting much offense from Jacob Cowing, but they also may not be in a position to let him go.
Cowing, a fourth-round pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, has only 80 receiving yards in his NFL career so far. That limited production, along with his availability issues over his first two seasons, has put him on the 2026 roster bubble. But what happened yesterday changed the conversation fast.
Cowing flashed the kind of burst that made him worth drafting in the first place, turning the corner and racing his way to his first career punt return touchdown, a run that went 83 yards.
JACOB COWING WITH THE 83-YARD PUNT RETURN TD 🏠SFvsLAC on @nflnetworkStream on @NFLPlus pic.twitter.com/BUV9YE8LyF
That play matters because Kyle Shanahan does not need Cowing to be a top-three receiver to justify a roster spot. San Francisco already showed last season that it can keep a player around for a very specific role.
The 49ers traded for Skyy Moore exactly one year and one day ago, and Moore appeared in all 17 regular-season games while drawing only 7 targets. Cowing could wind up in that same kind of lane this season.
There’s also the return-game angle. Cowing already filled a role similar to the one Moore handled the season before, and the numbers point to a player who can still grow into it.
The biggest difference in the comparison is yards per return, but the case for Cowing is that he’s no longer a rookie, and he had a year to watch Moore become one of the better returners in 2025. It would be easy to think the two spent time together in meetings last season and talked through the finer points of returning.
The alternatives don’t make much of a push, either. Deebo Samuel has zero career punt returns, and that duty is not part of his contract incentives, only kickoff returns.
Jordan Watkins also has zero career punt returns. Christian Kirk, meanwhile, has not returned a punt since Cowing was in college, and he has not been available to practice at all.
So the punt-return job is Cowing’s to lose, and after last night’s 83-yard score, that competition looks finished. He appears to have won both the role and a roster spot.
It’s tough to see the 49ers cutting a former fourth-round pick like Cowing in favor of Kirk, especially with Kirk not practicing and with San Francisco already on the hook for the $2.78 million guaranteed to him. Cowing looks set to make the 53-man roster, and he should be the punt returner when the 49ers face the Rams in Australia in Week 1.
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The early returns have been encouraging in preseason play, with Pieiro knocking through multiple field goals and Jacob Cowing flashing game-changing juice on an 83-yard punt return touchdown. The coverage unit has turned in its own strong moments, too, and under Brant Boyer the group has looked more reliable and more disruptive, the kind of quiet edge that can end up mattering most when games tighten in the fourth quarter. [Read more 🡒]
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49ers Veteran Core Makes This Feel Like A Win-Now Season
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But the age on that group also changes the conversation in a hurry. With so many of San Franciscos best players already on the other side of 30, the urgency is obvious, because championship windows do not stay open forever and the 49ers know the margin for error is shrinking. The talent is still there, but the pressure to turn it into a title feels more immediate now than it did even a year ago. [Read more 🡒]