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Will the 49ers Draft a Wide Receiver in Round 1 Again this Year?

They SHOULD draft an offensive lineman or a defensive lineman, but that doesn't mean they will.
Grant Cohn|
Dec 12, 2024; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan on the field before the game against the Los Angeles Rams at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kelley L Cox-Imagn Images
Dec 12, 2024; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan on the field before the game against the Los Angeles Rams at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kelley L Cox-Imagn Images | Kelley L Cox-Imagn Images

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San Francisco 49ers

INDIANAPOLIS -- The 49ers have to draft a player in the trenches with their first-round pick this year, right?

Not so fast.

Of course, they SHOULD draft an offensive lineman or a defensive lineman, but that doesn't mean they will.

We're talking Kyle Shanahan here, and he just had to trade his favorite offensive weapon, Deebo Samuel, to the Washington Commanders because the 49ers owners have placed tighter financial constraints on the front office than they have in the past few years according to general manager John Lynch.

When asked if the 49ers also would trade Brandon Aiyuk, Lynch didn't say no. Which means could lose both of their Week 1 starting wide receivers from last season.

If we know anything about Shanahan, it's that he loves wide receivers. That's his former position and favorite position. He's the one who wanted to spend a ton of money on both Samuel and Aiyuk at the same time. He won't settle for having a modest wide receiver room.

That's why Shanahan drafted Ricky Pearsall last year. He knew that Deebo Samuel probably was going into his final season on the team and would need to be replaced. And Pearsall is Samuel's replacement -- they're both Z receivers who also can play in the slot.

Aiyuk is a true X receiver. He lines up on the line of scrimmage and faces press coverage which is extremely difficult to beat. Last season when Aiyuk went down with a knee injury, Jennings replaced him as the X, but he's not fast enough to play that position. He's a slot guy.

So if the 49ers trade Aiyuk for financial reasons this offseason, which seems likely, Shanahan most likely will want to acquire a true X receiver to replace him. They could sign a veteran such as Amari Cooper, or they could draft one.

Maybe they shouldn't draft one. But if Tetairoa McMillan of Arizona is available when the 49ers pick in Round 1, I think Shanahan will take him.

I'm calling it now.

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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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