NFL free agency officially opens on Wednesday, March 11, but teams can begin negotiating contracts with players during the legal tampering period starting Monday. As a result, rosters are beginning to take shape for the upcoming season and teams’ planning is starting to materialize.
One of the teams with the greatest potential to return to prominence is the San Francisco 49ers, who reached the divisional round during a 2025 season marked by several injuries across the roster.
The 49ers are looking for a wide receiver during this window and could find an inexpensive option with skills the team currently lacks.
49ers Could Pursue WR Marquise Brown in Free Agency
One of the biggest challenges for Kyle Shanahan’s offense in recent years has been overcoming the departure and aging of stars who once formed one of the fastest and most dynamic units in the entire NFL.
That now appears to be in the past, given that the 49ers have one of the oldest rosters in the league and looked slow in 2025.
One symptom of that was the fact that Brock Purdy was the third quarterback who held the ball the longest last season, averaging 3.01 seconds per pass attempt. This is partly related to the quarterback’s traits and the system, but it also reflects how Shanahan’s offense needs time for its receivers to get open.
With cap space to spend but many gaps on the roster, veteran wide receiver Marquise “Hollywood” Brown presents as a cheap option for Shanahan’s offense, which needs a deep and lightweight target who can win his matchups quickly, something the team got only intermittently from Demarcus Robinson last season.
“Hollywood Brown played in just two games for the Chiefs in 2024, but he recovered well from injury with a solid 2025 campaign. He caught 49 passes for 587 yards and 5 touchdowns, dropping just 1 of his 70 targets and ending up with a 104.3 targeted passer rating,” Jacob Infante wrote, in a PFSN article.
Brown’s role has become more of a complementary piece rather than the high-volume receiver he once was with the Baltimore Ravens, and at times, with the Arizona Cardinals.
But for the 49ers, he could be a complementary target in an offense that may lose Jauan Jennings and Brandon Aiyuk, but that still has Ricky Pearsall as a burgeoning downfield threat.
“Injuries seem to have slowed Brown down a little bit, and it would be surprising to see him return to the 1,000-yard territory he achieved with the Ravens in 2021. However, he’s still a twitchy receiver who can win with speed out wide,” Infante added.
In a scenario in which the 49ers bring in Brown, San Francisco’s 2026 receiving corps could potentially feature Pearsall, Brown and Robinson as the first rotation, with support from Jacob Cowing, Jordan Watkins, and potentially, Skyy Moore, who operates primarily as a returner.
