NFL Draft

San Francisco 49ers' Day 3 pick, Year 1 starter: WR Jacob Cowing

49ers rookie receiver Jacob Cowing could break big in Kyle Shanahan's offense sooner than later.

Doug Farrar

Robert Kupbens-USA TODAY Sports
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The 49ers come into the 2024 season with an interesting first-world problem: They have two top receivers in Brandon Aiyuk and Deebo Samuel who present different and pressing financial issues. For Samuel, it's that he's entering the big-money part of the three-year, $71.55 million contract extension he signed in 2022 -- a pact that has him with a 2024 salary cap charge of nearly $29 million. For Aiyuk, it's the need to get paid like the top-tier receiver he has become; he's currently in the final year of the four-year, $12,531,350 contract he signed in 2020 as the 25th overall draft pick out of Arizona State.

The 49ers don't really have an alpha dog receiver in the Justin Jefferson or Ja'Marr Chase sense; as gifted as both Samuel and Aiyuk are, they're more elite cogs in Kyle Shanahan's masterful system than scheme-transcendent players. That 's not to minimize Samuel or Aiyuk at all; it's more about asset management under the salary cap, and where the 49ers want to put their available resources.

One thing's for sure -- Shanahan and general manager John Lynch did a lot in the 2024 draft to buck up their receiver room. They selected Florida's Ricky Pearsall with the 31st overall pick, and Pearsall projects well as an inside/outside guy with extensive route understanding -- which is mandatory if you want to take Shanahan's playbook to the field.

In addition, the 49ers got one of the better sleeper receivers in this class when they selected Arizona's Jacob Cowing with the 135th overall pick in the fourth round. The 5'11", 175 pound Cowing caught 89 passes on 121 targets last season for 868 yards and 13 touchdowns. And more than you'd expect for a receiver of his size, Cowing has proven able to win outside; nearly 30% of his targets in 2023 were from a wide alignment. And as a deep receiver, Cowing has the potential to scald a defense -- last season per Pro Football Focus, he caught six passes of 20 or more air yards for 184 yards and four touchdowns. And his return ability should help the 49ers take advantage of the league's new kickoff rules.

“Very similar to what we got with Ricky in that there’s not a route that he can’t run," Shanahan said of Cowing after he was drafted. "He starts outside the numbers and he’s got the speed to get on top of people and threaten with a go. He’s got the quickness. Inside he’d be a big problem with just how shifty he is. He can run screens and things like that. Very good punt returner. For his lack of size, he makes up with mentality. His mindset, when he does cut, he’s always accelerating out of a cut. He’s trying to violently go through people and when you’re smaller, you hope they’re faster and quicker, which he is, and anything that you wanna knock on a smaller guy he makes up for in his mindset.”

Lynch, for his part, mentioned a draftable cornerback who spoke with the team on one of the player's top 30 visits, and this unnamed cornerback talked on and on about what a problem Cowing was to cover. That insight, matched with the team's internal evaluation, made the Cowing pick a lead-pipe lock.

So, what makes Cowing a potential starter-level guy in terms of snaps? Last season, the 49ers had three different players with 35 or more slot targets -- Samuel with 38, Aiyuk with 36, and tight end George Kittle with 35. As much as Shanahan loves to have Brock Purdy's targets aligned all over the field (and re-aligned with pre-snap shifts and motions), that could set Cowing up for success in the very near future.

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Doug Farrar
DOUG FARRAR

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