The 49ers may already have a return-game answer sitting in plain sight.
Special teams coordinator Brant Boyer made it clear Monday that the team’s competition is wide open, with Jacob Cowing, Will Pauling, Jordan Watkins and Junior Bergen all in the mix. But Boyer’s message was less about naming names and more about finding a player who can handle the full job.
“I think [Jacob] Cowing, [Will] Pauling, and [Jordan] Watkins, all those guys are back there. Junior Bergen.
There’s a big handful of guys, and hopefully they can make great decisions and catch the ball first and foremost. That’s important.
Decision-making is the real separator for Boyer. He said the job goes well beyond just fielding kicks and making people miss.
“It’s a matter of, can they make the right decisions? Can they block a gunner when they’re supposed to?
Can they let a ball hit the ground when they’re supposed to? Can they go up and catch a fair catch when they’re supposed to?
There’s a lot more that goes into it than just returning the ball. We’re trying to find the guy that has the whole package, that we can count on every week, that can catch the ball and make great decisions.”
On paper, Cowing has the only real return experience in the group. All of his numbers came in 2024, when he handled 28 punt returns and one kickoff. That gives him a leg up in the punt return battle, and for now, that looks like the spot he’s trying to hold onto.
The bigger wrinkle is Deebo Samuel.
Samuel’s arrival could change the kick return picture and, in turn, put more pressure on Cowing’s roster spot. Boyer was fired up about getting Samuel into the mix.
“Well, certainly when they told me that he was coming I was like, ‘Hell yeah. Let’s go.’
Because he is a difference maker. He’s obviously proven and he’s done it at a very, very high level.
I’m really anxious, we were all talking about it, to get him in our scheme. I’ve watched him and really liked what he’s done throughout his career, liked him coming out of college.
He’s a hell of a player and he’s really tough to tackle. He’s got speed to take it to the house all the time.
Again, any time you can add a guy like that to the roster, you’re jumping up for joy as a special teams coach.”
Samuel has never returned a punt in his career, but he does bring kickoff experience, with 41 career kickoff returns and 32 of them coming over the last two seasons. His recent production is hard to ignore, too.
In his final year with the 49ers, he averaged 31.3 yards per return and broke one for 60 yards. Last season with the Commanders, he was still over 30 yards per return and had a 69-yard return.
Both marks would have placed among the top five if he had enough attempts to qualify.
That’s why Samuel feels like more than just a fallback option. If the 49ers trusted him in 2024, when the receiving room was thin, it’s fair to expect they’d at least consider him again in 2026 with Mike Evans and De’Zhaun Stribling on the roster.
For now, though, the door is still open for the younger options. Watkins, Pauling and Bergen will get their chance to show what they can do in the preseason. If none of them separate themselves, Samuel may be the obvious answer waiting behind them.
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The uncertainty does not stop there, either. The battle at left guard, the rotation along the defensive line, and the competition in the secondary are all still unfolding, while the return game has become another spot where players are trying to separate themselves. With several spots still in flux and a few players working back from injuries, camp is starting to look less like a straightforward evaluation and more like a series of overlapping decisions the 49ers have to get right. [Read more 🡒]