How valuable is wide receiver Deebo Samuel to the San Francisco 49ers offense? In 2023, the 49ers averaged over seven yards per play when Samuel was healthy. When he wasn’t healthy, missing two games in the middle of the regular season, the 49ers averaged just six yards per play.
Unfortunately for Samuel, and the 49ers, the injury bug has hit yet again in 2024. Head coach Kyle Shanahan said Monday that Samuel will miss a couple of weeks with a calf strain sustained in Sunday’s Week 2 loss at the Minnesota Vikings.
Samuel joins running back Christian McCaffrey as an injured key member of the 49ers offensive skill group. Jordan Mason has filled in nicely for McCaffrey at running back, but the 49ers receiving depth is about to be tested. Let’s look at the other receivers on the 49ers roster.
Who Is Jauan Jennings?
Jennings is a household name, at one point a leader for the MVP of Super Bowl LVIII. In that game, the former seventh-round draft pick out of Tennessee threw a touchdown to McCaffrey in the second quarter and caught a touchdown in the fourth quarter.
PURDY TO JENNINGS TO CMC FOR SIX 🔥
📺: #SBLVIII on CBS
📱: Stream on #NFLPlus https://t.co/dClcEDViWl pic.twitter.com/ktiTXIiHzS— NFL (@NFL) February 12, 2024
You may also remember Jennings for a memorable Hail Mary touchdown to lift Tennessee to a win over Georgia. That was when he was a sophomore with the Volunteers. Now, he’s guaranteed to make $8.435 million on a two-year deal with the 49ers.
Now in his fifth season with the 49ers, Jennings should see an increased target share with Samuel sidelined for what looks like the next two games. Jennings has seven receptions for 101 yards through two games so far in 2024, five of them going for first downs. Right now, Jennings has a career-high 14.4 yards per catch. He averaged 13.9 yards per catch in 2023, and he had a career-high 35 receptions for 416 yards in 2022.
Jennings is a football guy, according to former New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick. In the weekly “Football Guys” segment on The CW’s “Inside the NFL,” Belichick chose Jennings as his Football Guy in Week 1. Now, he’ll see an increased target share and role in the 49ers offensive game plan in the next couple weeks when the 49ers play at the Los Angeles Rams (Week 3) and host the Patriots (Week 4).
Who Is Chris Conley?
Conley is in his 10th season in the NFL, and the 49ers are his fifth team. Conley was a third-round draft pick by the Kansas City Chiefs in 2015 out of Georgia, where he caught 20 touchdowns over four seasons.
Conley has only played in 10 games with the 49ers since arriving in the Bay Area in 2023. He has just one catch for four yards this season, but Conley has had a solid NFL career.
In 2018 and 2019, with the Chiefs winning Super Bowl LIV in 2019, Conley had five touchdowns in both of those seasons. He had a career-high 47 receptions for 775 yards in that championship season in 2019.
Conley is only costing the 49ers $1.550 million against the salary cap, and he could see an uptick in targets in the next couple of weeks with every other receiver’s role changing.
Who Is Ronnie Bell?
Bell doesn’t have a catch so far this season, but that’s about to change. A former seventh-round pick in 2023 out of Michigan, Bell played in all 17 games for the 49ers in his rookie season.
Bell had just six catches for 68 yards in 2023, but three of those catches were for touchdowns. He had a solid career at Michigan, helping lead the Wolverines to the College Football Playoff in 2021 and 2022. Bell had 62 catches for 889 yards and four touchdowns in 2022.
Bell will earn a salary of $815,000 in 2024, part of a four-year rookie contract worth up to $3.918 million.
Who Is Jacob Cowing?
Cowing was drafted by the 49ers in the fourth round back in April. He played at UTEP and Arizona in college.
So far this season, Cowing has three punt returns for 15 yards. He does not have a catch through two games.
Cowing had an outstanding college career. Over his last three seasons, Cowing caught 27 touchdowns and had 3,236 receiving yards on 244 receptions.
What Happened to Ricky Pearsall?
Pearsall is on injured reserve with a non-football related injury. That injury was sustained after being shot in the chest during an attempted robbery.
Before that, Pearsall missed a majority of training camp and the preseason with a shoulder injury. He played college football at Arizona State and Florida. In his final season with the Gators in 2023, Pearsall had 65 catches for 965 yards and four touchdowns. The 49ers drafted him 31st overall in the first round of this year’s draft.