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PFF: The 49ers are the NFL's Only Team with Two Top 10 Wide Receivers

This year almost certainly will be the 49ers' final season with both Brandon Aiyuk and Deebo Samuel on their roster.

Grant Cohn

Sep 10, 2023; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA; San Francisco 49ers wide receivers Deebo Samuel (19) and Brandon Aiyuk (11) take the field against the Pittsburgh Steelers at Acrisure Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports
Sep 10, 2023; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA; San Francisco 49ers wide receivers Deebo Samuel (19) and Brandon Aiyuk (11) take the field against the Pittsburgh Steelers at Acrisure Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports / Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports
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This year almost certainly will be the 49ers' final season with both Brandon Aiyuk and Deebo Samuel on their roster.

But for now, the 49ers are the only team in the NFL that has two top 10 wide receivers, according to Pro Football Focus, which ranks Brandon Aiyuk no. 8 and Deebo Samuel no. 10.

"A devastating route runner and explosive threat," writes PFF analyst Sam Monson, "Brandon Aiyuk is one of the most efficient receivers in the game whose overall numbers are held back only by the offense he plays in and the sheer quantity of other options within it. Passes thrown his way last season generated a 126.8 passer rating."

You can see why Aiyuk is holding out for more money than the 49ers have offered him. He feels he sacrificed statistics for the good of the team and that the 49ers should reward him. Unfortunately for him, PFF ranked him one spot behind Amon-Ra St. Brown, who recently signed a contract extension with the Lions.

"One of the most difficult players to place in abstract terms, Deebo Samuel is a unique weapon," writes Monson. "Part running back, part receiver and all playmaker, he led the league with 32 broken tackles last year, 10 more than any other receiver. His absences from the lineup due to injury also coincided with the 49ers’ biggest wobbles during the season."

Samuel clearly is on the downside of his career, and yet he scored a whopping 12 touchdowns last season, so he's crucial to the 49ers offense.

You'd think with two top 10 wide receivers, the 49ers wouldn't rank dead last in pass attempts last season, but they did.

It's time for their offense to become more balanced.

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Grant Cohn
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.

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