The 49ers' passing attack is hurting ... again: How Brock Purdy can move the ball until WR corps gets healthy

Last year, the San Francisco 49ers saw their skill-position corps decimated by injuries. 

Star running back Christian McCaffrey had bilateral Achilles tendonitis and missed most of the year. Wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk tore his ACL and was limited to only seven games. Rookie wideout Ricky Pearsall suffered a gunshot wound during the preseason and didn't return until late in the year. Deebo Samuel dealt with injuries and illness throughout the season and wasn't himself. Even the guys who stayed mostly healthy -- George Kittle and Jauan Jennings -- each missed two games due to injury. 

Coming into this season, there are still some question marks. Kittle is of course back and McCaffrey is reportedly healthy, but Samuel now plays for the Washington Commanders, Jennings is dealing with a calf injury and unhappy about his contract, Pearsall missed a portion of the offseason program with an injury of his own and general manager John Lynch said during a Thursday radio appearance that he doesn't think Aiyuk will be cleared by Week 1 of the season and there is no timetable for his return, per the Bay Area News Group.

Given the various issues surrounding this group, it's worth taking a look at what things might look like, both early in the season and for the year as a whole.

At running back, we know the deal. CMC is going to be the lead back and he's going to handle a monster workload. Kyle Shanahan routinely talks about wanting to manage his reps and his touches, and then ends up giving him just about all of the work anyway. 

We know McCaffrey will play a significant role in the passing game, but whether any of the other backs will factor in there is an open question. Backup running back Isaac Guerendo is dealing with a shoulder injury, and the Niners recently signed Ameer Abdullah to pick up some of the training camp snaps behind CMC, Patrick Taylor and rookie Jordan James. 

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Will Backus

Kittle doesn't run as many routes nor see as many targets as other top tight ends, in part because the Niners actually do manage his reps and in part because he is the best blocking tight end in the NFL. But Kittle is a historically efficient pass catcher, and last year he posted his fourth career season with better than 2.5 yards per route run, according to TruMedia. Should any of the wideouts actually miss time, he should have another monster receiving season. And even if they're all healthy, he is good for a bunch of catches and explosive plays due to his ability to win both down the field and with the ball in his hands after the catch. 

The non-Kittle tight ends aren't really passing-game factors. The Niners still have Ross Dwelley hanging around, they signed Luke Farrell away from the Jaguars and 2023 seventh-round pick Brayden Willis remains on the roster for now. San Francisco likes to use multi-tight end sets, but will also have fullback Kyle Juszczyk play a tight end-esque role, and he's the only one of the group that sees a non-de minimis number of targets.

When everyone's healthy, the 49ers' wide receiver corps looks pretty easy to decipher. Aiyuk is the prototype X receiver who wins on the line of scrimmage and terrorizes man coverage. Pearsall is the Z/flanker who moves around the formation, goes in motion, makes plays with the ball in his hands and beats zones. And Jennings is the slot man who moves the chains, especially on third downs, also does the dirty work in the run game. 

But Aiyuk won't be healthy to start the year, and maybe won't be healthy at all. That's presumably why San Francisco signed Demarcus Robinson, who has experience working in a Shanahan-style system from his time with Sean McVay and the Rams. He can play the X receiver role, though he obviously won't command as significant a target share as Aiyuk. If Jennings doesn't get healthy, we can probably expect Pearsall to move into the slot more often, though fourth-round pick Jordan Watkins spent a ton of time there during his career at Ole Miss and so did 2024 fourth-rounder Jacob Cowing. Those guys could be options to pick up snaps on the inside as well. 

Brock Purdy showed last season that he can maintain a certain floor of production even with an atrophying skill-position corps (he was still fifth in EPA per dropback among qualified passers despite his poor touchdown-to-interception numbers), but to hit the ceiling we saw from both him and the 49ers offense in his previous year-plus as the starter, San Francisco will need to gets its guys healthy and back onto the field.