Do the 49ers Have the Best Trio of Pass Catchers in the NFC West?

Let's rank the pass-catching trios from worst to best and see where the 49ers' trio stands.

Grant Cohn | Jun 27, 2021

Recently, I ranked the safety duos in the NFC West. Today, let's rank the pass-catching trios from worst to best and see where the 49ers' trio stands.

4. Los Angeles Rams: Robert Woods, Cooper Kupp and Tyler Higbee.

Higbee is an underrated tight end who has performed well against the 49ers, and Woods and Kupp both are quality No. 2 receivers. But the Rams don't have a true go-to guy in the passing game, meaning a No. 1 target who is a matchup nightmare. Nor do they have a true deep threat. Their trio is solid yet unspectacular.

3. Arizona Cardinals: DeAndre Hopkins, A.J. Green, Christian Kirk.

Hopkins is the best receiver in the division -- he gained 1,407 receiving yards last season. Green is a former perennial Pro Bowler who will be 33 next season and could have a big bounce-back season playing for the first time with Kyler Murray. And Kirk is a solid No. 3 option. This trio is terrific.

2. Seattle Seahawks: D.K. Metcalf, Tyler Lockett, Gerald Everett.

Metcalf is a top-five receiver in the NFL and Lockett is a top-15 receiver -- they're one of the best receiver duos in the league. But we're not ranking duos here -- we're ranking trios. And Everett is a solid tight end who should be an upgrade over the old Greg Olsen, but he's nothing compared to George Kittle.

1. 49ers: George Kittle, Deebo Samuel, Brandon Aiyuk.

Aiyuk is one of the best route runners in the NFL, Samuel is one of the best receivers after the catch in the NFL and Kittle might be the biggest mismatch in the NFL. Together, this trio is elite when healthy. Unfortunately for the 49ers, these three players were rarely healthy at the same time in 2020. If they manage to stay on the field this year, the 49ers will have a tremendously dangerous offense.

Published Jun 27, 2021

GRANT COHN

Grant Cohn has covered the San Francisco 49ers daily since 2011. He spent the first nine years of his career with the Santa Rosa Press Democrat where he wrote the Inside the 49ers blog and covered famous coaches and athletes such as Jim Harbaugh, Colin Kaepernick and Patrick Willis. In 2012, Inside the 49ers won Sports Blog of the Year from the Peninsula Press Club. In 2020, Cohn joined FanNation and began writing All49ers. In addition, he created a YouTube channel which has become the go-to place on YouTube to consume 49ers content. Cohn's channel typically generates roughly 3.5 million viewers per month, while the 49ers' official YouTube channel generates roughly 1.5 million viewers per month. Cohn live streams almost every day and posts videos hourly during the football season. Cohn is committed to asking the questions that 49ers fans want answered, and providing the most honest and interactive coverage in the country. His loyalty is to the reader and the viewer, not the team or any player or coach. Cohn is a new-age multimedia journalist with an old-school mentality, because his father is Lowell Cohn, the legendary sports columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1979 to 1993. The two have a live podcast every Tuesday. Grant Cohn grew up in Oakland and studied English Literature at UCLA from 2006 to 2010. He currently lives in Oakland with his wife.