Add The California Post on Google SANTA CLARA — The San Francisco 49ers are in dire need of help at wide receiver.
For the second straight week, one of Brock Purdy’s pass-catchers was carted to the locker room after Demarcus Robinson sprained his ankle in the first half of their 35-13 win Sunday over the Miami Dolphins. They lost rookie standout De’Zhaun Stribling and tight end Jake Tonges in Week 1, and Ricky Pearsall already underwent season-ending surgery.
“No,” Kyle Shanahan smirked — Brandon Aiyuk is not an option they are considering.
San Francisco was down to three healthy, active receivers by the end of Sunday’s win: Deebo Samuel, Jacob Cowing and KhaDarel Hodge. Even Mike Evans departed with a hip issue in the second half and didn’t return, but Shanahan wasn’t overly concerned about the 33-year-old.
“If the game was different,” Shanahan said, “he would’ve been able to come back in.”
Robinson, on the other hand, is expected to miss some time. Shanahan termed his ailment a high ankle sprain, and those typically come with several weeks of rehab and recovery.
He was the 49ers’ leading receiver when he went down and had quietly turned into one of Purdy’s most trusted targets, hauling in 84 yards and a long touchdown in a game and a half.
Now, add him to the growing list of 49ers receivers out with long-term injuries.
Stribling had surgery to repair the deltoid ligament in his ankle and is expected to miss about 10 weeks. Tonges, who caught five touchdowns last season, tore his MCL and will miss the rest of the season, just like Pearsall, who hasn’t had a healthy season since he was drafted in 2024.
“These are all extremely great playmakers that looking at our roster in OTAs and camp, it’s like, ‘Oh shoot, we can do some damage.’ And then Ricky goes down, Stribling, and now D-Rob,” Purdy said. “It sucks because those are my guys and those are our playmakers and for them to go down early in the season like that is tough.”
The Niners still have no shortage of playmakers — Christian McCaffrey, George Kittle and Evans to name a few future Hall-of-Famers — and it didn’t seem to matter who was on the receiving end of Purdy’s near-perfect passing day against the Dolphins.
But a team can only withstand so many losses at a single position.
And the 49ers aren’t getting any help from within, at least not in the immediate future.
Free agent addition Christian Kirk, who missed almost all of training camp, isn’t eligible to be activated until Week 5. They also have Jordan Watkins, but he was left off the active roster against the Dolphins, even already missing Stribling, Pearsall and Kirk.
“I’m sure we’ll have to add somebody, whether it’s the practice squad or to the roster,” Shanahan said. ”Hopefully [we’ll] have an answer by Wednesday.”
Aiyuk, technically, is still a member of the 49ers, though he’s not on their payroll. The troubled former top receiver had his salary voided and remains on the reserve/left squad list but has not applied for reinstatement with the NFL and has not indicated any plans to do so.
As for realistic options, there are handful of notable names available on the free-agent market — Tyreek Hill, Darius Slayton, Brandin Cooks — and general manager John Lynch has never shied away from making a splashy in-season trade (see: McCaffrey, Christian).
But Shanahan also tends to have his guys. In a system as finely tuned as the 49ers, fit and familiarity matter more than raw talent or name recognition.
To that end, it’s almost a surprise the 49ers made it to Monday morning without bringing back Malik Turner, who didn’t make the cut after training camp and remains unsigned. Trenton Irwin also falls into that category. A couple former 49ers are also on the market in Ray-Ray McCloud, who played for Shanahan from 2022-23, and River Cracraft, who also played two seasons from 2020-21.
The 49ers preach next man up, and Purdy praised the fill-in efforts of Cowing and Hodge, but eventually there’s only so much help in-house options can provide.
