All 49ers

The 49ers Could Draft Missouri WR Luther Burden in Round 1

The 49ers need a new No. 1 wide receiver.
Grant Cohn|
Nov 9, 2024; Columbia, Missouri, USA; Missouri Tigers wide receiver Luther Burden III (3) runs with the ball during the first half against the Oklahoma Sooners at Faurot Field at Memorial Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jay Biggerstaff-Imagn Images
Nov 9, 2024; Columbia, Missouri, USA; Missouri Tigers wide receiver Luther Burden III (3) runs with the ball during the first half against the Oklahoma Sooners at Faurot Field at Memorial Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jay Biggerstaff-Imagn Images | Jay Biggerstaff-Imagn Images

In this story:

San Francisco 49ers

The 49ers need a new No. 1 wide receiver.

Deebo Samuel used to be their No. 1 receiver but he's old now recently requested a trade. Brandon Aiyuk was supposed to be their No. 1 receiver of the future but he tore his ACL and MCL last season and might never regain the explosion and route-running precision that made him special.

After them, the 49ers have Jauan Jennings and Ricky Pearsall, two good complementary receivers. Neither one is a go-to guy.

Which brings us to Missouri wide receiver Luther Burden III. He is the highest-graded wide receiver in the draft according to NFL.com, and Pro Football Focus compares him to Deebo Samuel. A young Deebo.

"Burden is one of the best yards-after-catch receivers in this class – and he would still be even if you included some studs in previous draft cycle," writes PFF analyst Trevor Sikkema. "He reminds me of Deebo Samuel in how the objective should just be to get the ball in his hands and watch him make magic happen. Burden has recorded over 1,100 yards after the catch over the last two years."

YAC has been the defining feature of the 49ers passing game until this past season when Samuel fell off. It's fair to assume head coach Kyle Shanahan will look to add a YAC merchant this offseason. Of course, the 49ers desperately need to revamp their trenches, but this is Shanahan we're talking about. He invests in players who score touchdowns first and foremost.

Download and follow The Cohn Zohn Podcast.

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.

Share on XFollow grantcohn
Home/News