• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar

San Francisco Sports Today

San Francisco Sports News Continuously Updated

  • Baseball
    • A’s
    • Giants
  • Football
    • 49’ers
    • Raiders
  • Basketball
    • Kings
    • Warriers
  • Sharks
  • Earthquakes
  • Colleges
    • San Jose State
    • Stanford
    • University of California, Berkeley

PFF ranks 49ers receiving corps among NFL's elite

June 11, 2022 by Niners Wire Leave a Comment

It’s hard to step into a better situation than the one Trey Lance will enter when he becomes the 49ers’ starting quarterback. While there’ll be some questions to answer along the offensive line, his receiving corps might be one of the NFL’s best.

Pro Football Focus ranked the league’s pass-catching groups and put San Francisco at No. 6 overall, and in the ‘Elite’ tier behind Las Vegas, Philadelphia, Miami, Tampa Bay and Cincinnati. That ranking, of course relies a lot on Deebo Samuel’s status. From PFF:

Before Samuel took on his “wide back” role toward the tail end of the 2021 season, he was one of the most efficient wide receivers in the league. His 86.9 PFF receiving grade through Week 10 ranked third, behind only Davante Adams and Cooper Kupp.

George Kittle remains one of the league’s few truly elite tight ends, and Brandon Aiyuk emerged from Kyle Shanahan’s doghouse down the stretch to generate a 119.4 passer rating on his 83 targets. And with potential contributions from less established players like Jauan Jennings and rookie Danny Gray out of SMU, this becomes one of the more well-rounded groups in the league on paper.

Samuel’s rushing exploits make it easy to forget his 77 receptions, 1,405 receiving yards and six receiving touchdowns last year. His 18.2 yards per reception led the NFL. He showed last year he’s a true No. 1 receiver.

Aiyuk’s emergence at the end of the season is also a good sign for San Francisco. He took over a lot of the pass-catching load Samuel relinquished when his receiving touches turned to carries. Over his final 10 games he had 43 catches for 685 yards and four touchdowns. If he picks up in 2022 where he left off he could push the 1,000-yard mark as the team’s No. 2 receiver.

Adding Kittle to that one-two punch gives the 49ers three legitimate, high-level pass catchers who can impact the game at all three levels and after the catch.

The exciting thing for San Francisco is what’s further down the depth chart. Jennings, Gray and Ray-Ray McCloud all have a legitimate shot at making a difference as the third wide receiver. Given their varying skill sets there could be a moment for every member of that trio. If one emerges as a legitimate WR3 option though, which Jennings certainly did toward the end of last season, we may find San Francisco’s group of pass catchers landing even higher on this list.

Like this article?

Sign up for the Niners Wire email newsletter to get our top stories in your inbox every morning

An error has occured

Please re-enter your email address.

Thanks for signing up!

You’ll now receive the top Niners Wire stories each day directly in your inbox.

Filed Under: 49'ers

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Recent Posts

  • Snapshots: Gaudreau, Sharks, Russia
  • (no title)
  • Kevon Looney to return to Warriors
  • (no title)
  • Nemanja Bjelica headed back to Europe with Fenerbahce?

Categories

  • 49'ers
  • A's
  • Earthquakes
  • Giants
  • Kings
  • Raiders
  • San Jose State
  • Sharks
  • Stanford
  • Uncategorized
  • University of California, Berkeley
  • Warriers

Archives

  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • July 2019

Our Partners

All Sports

  • San Francisco Chronicle
  • San Francisco Examiner
  • The Mercury News
  • 247 Sports
  • Bleacher Report
  • Forgotten 5
  • Golden Gate Sports
  • The Sports Fan Journal
  • The Spun
  • USA Today

Baseball

  • San Francisco Giants
  • Oakland A's
  • Last Word On Baseball - Oakland A's
  • Last Word On Baseball - San Francisco Giants
  • MLB Trade Rumors - A's
  • MLB Trade Rumors - Giants
  • White Cleat Beat
  • Around The Foghorn
  • Athletics Nation
  • McCovey Chronicles

Basketball

  • Golden State Warriors
  • Sacramento Kings
  • A Royal Pain
  • Amico Hoops - Kings
  • Amico Hoops - Warriors
  • Blue Man Hoop
  • Golden State Of Mind
  • Hoops Hype - Warriors
  • Hoops Hype - Kings
  • Hoops Rumors - Warriors
  • Hoops Rumors - Kings
  • Lets Go Warriors
  • Last Word On Pro Basketball - Golden State
  • Last Word On Pro Basketball - Sacramento
  • Pro Basketball Talk - Warriors
  • Pro Basketball Talk - Kings
  • Real GM - Warriors
  • Real GM - Kings
  • Sactown Royalty

Football

  • San Francisco 49ers
  • Las Vegas Raiders
  • 49ers Gab
  • Just Blog Baby
  • Last Word On Pro Football
  • NFL Trade Rumors - San Francisco 49ers
  • NFL Trade Rumors - Las Vegas Raiders
  • Niners Nation
  • Niner Noise
  • Niners Wire
  • Our Turf Football
  • Pro Football Rumors - 49ers
  • Pro Football Rumors - Raiders
  • Pro Football Talk - 49ers
  • Pro Football Talk - Raiders
  • Raiders Wire
  • Silver And Black Pride
  • Total 49ers

Hockey

  • Blades Of Teal
  • Fear The Fin
  • Last Word On Hockey
  • Pro Hockey Rumors
  • Pro Hockey Talk
  • The Hockey Writers

Soccer

  • Center Line Soccer
  • Last Word on Soccer
  • MLS Multiplex

College

  • Busting Brackets
  • California Golden Blogs
  • College Sports Madness
  • College Football News
  • Rule Of Tree
  • Saturday Blitz
  • The Daily Californian
  • The Stanford Daily
  • Zags Blog

Copyright © 2022 · Magazine Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in