News of Deebo Samuel’s trade request altered the San Francisco 49ers’ list of offseason needs and made wide receiver a bigger priority.
Now they may need to draft a WR with the hope of that player contributing right away. That player could be the University of Wasington’s Jeremiah Hunter, who met with San Francisco at the Tropical Bowl according to the Draft Network’s Justin Melo.
Hunter, who spent his first three college seasons at Cal, is a really interesting player despite never having elite-level production. What he lacks in top-end productivity he makes up for in consistency.
As a freshman at Cal he put up 388 yards on 21 catches. He followed that up with seasons of 60 catches, 965 yards and five touchdowns, and 63 catches for 731 yards and seven touchdowns. Last season with the Huskies his numbers dipped to 490 yards and one touchdown on 36 receptions.
It’s easy to see while watching Hunter where he might be appealing to the 49ers and head coach Kyle Shanahan. He’s extremely sure-handed and very good at playing through contact to make acrobatic contested catches. Pro Football Focus logged only seven drops for Hunter on 263 targets in his career. He also converted on 32 of 49 contested catch situations per PFF.
Hunter is a capable run blocker who does a lot of little things to help out his QB. He’s a good target if the 49ers want to use a later-round pick on a receiver who has a lot of tools to be a rock solid pro.