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The Final Grade For the 2021 49ers Wide Receivers

Between Samuel, Aiyuk and Jennings, the 49ers had an elite trio of wide receivers in 2021.

Grant Cohn

In this story:

Deebo Samuel just had one of the greatest seasons a 49ers wide receiver ever has had.

He produced a Jerry-Rice esque season. Led the NFL with 18.2 yards per catch and ranked No. 1 among all wide receivers with 10 yards after the catch on average, as only Rice could.

Here were Samuel's numbers: 77 catches, 1405 receiving yards, 18.2 yards per catch, 14 touchdowns (6 receiving, 8 rushing).

Compare those to the stats Rice put up in 1986: 86 catches, 1570 receiving yards, 18.3 yards per catch, 16 touchdown (15 receiving, 1 rushing).

Both were all-time great seasons, but Rice played with the best quarterback ever -- Joe Montana -- while Samuel played with Jimmy Garoppolo, who's never gone to a Pro Bowl. Imagine Samuel's numbers had he played with Montana or Steve Young or even Jeff Garcia as Rice did.

Samuel is the best player in the NFL.

And his running mate, Brandon Aiyuk, is an excellent No. 2 receiver, although the 49ers buried him on the depth chart the first half of the season so they could give playing time to Trent Sherfield, who plays well in practice. Unfortunately for the 49ers, that practice performance hasn't translated to games, as Sherfield caught just 9 of 20 targets during the regular season, and the 49ers quarterbacks' passer rating when targeting him was 53.5.

Midway through the season when the 49ers were 3-5, they desperately let Aiyuk out of the doghouse, and he helped save their season. He finished the season with 826 receiving yards, 5 touchdowns and a quarterback rating when targeted of 118.5.

And there's No. 3 receiver Jauan Jennings, who had to sit behind the old, washed up Mohamed Sanu for half a season until Sanu got injured. Sanu caught just 15 passes and scored no touchdowns in 8 games. Jennings took over the slot receiver role midseason and caught five touchdown passes.

Between Samuel, Aiyuk and Jennings, the 49ers had an elite trio of wide receivers in 2021. 

It just took the coaches a while figure it out.

FINAL GRADE: A-PLUS.

Published
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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