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The 49ers Need to Change What They Look for at Wide Receiver

Yes, I'm talking Deebo Samuel.

Grant Cohn

In this story:

So goodbye to the YAC bros.

The 49ers need to change what they look for at wide receiver this offseason. The days of searching high and low for glorified running backs who excel after the catch but don't run good routes or get themselves open effectively are over.

The YAC bros were for Jimmy Garoppolo because he was so limited and overrated. The 49ers couldn't trust him to hold the ball for more than a couple seconds without him doing something awful, so they acquired as many receivers as possible who could catch quick passes in the flat, break a bunch of tackles and run for big gains after the catch.

Yes, I'm talking Deebo Samuel.

He was a cheat code when he was younger. He could catch a short pass or a shovel pass or a pitch and take it to the house. Which means he was perfect for Garoppolo, because Garoppolo wasn't a precise passer. You couldn't trust him to throw the ball outside the numbers or more than 10 yards downfield. So he needed a wide receiver who could double as a running back.

Brock Purdy doesn't need a gimmick wide back.

Purdy is a legitimately good quarterback unlike Garoppolo. Purdy throws downfield with anticipation and accuracy unlike Garoppolo. Which means Purdy simply needs wide receivers who run good routes and get open versus man-to-man coverage.

That's not Samuel

That's Brandon Aiyuk and Jauan Jennings. The 49ers need to get more wide receivers like those two. The 49ers don't need Deebo anymore.

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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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