There’s always excitement around rookie wide receivers. That’s true for De’Zhaun Stribling this season, and it was true for Jordan Watkins last year.
There’s a running joke about young wideouts on the San Francisco 49ers falling into Kyle Shanahan’s doghouse early in their careers. Shanahan explained why we didn’t see much of Watkins as a rookie back in January:
Jordan got hurt in his first preseason game with a high ankle sprain, and he needed, he wasn’t ready yet, like 95-percent of guys who come
into training camp aren’t. And then you take them through a few preseason games, you take them through an entire training camp and they’ve got a chance to get there for Week 1.
And then they usually realize, ‘oh, I’m not totally quite ready. This is what I’ve got to do and maybe I can get there by Week 5, Week 6.’ When you get hurt right away in training camp and you miss a whole training camp it’s a huge window for guys who aren’t quite ready yet. That was their chance to get ready. And then when you come back, where are you when you come back? If it’s off a high ankle sprain, how’s your conditioning now? Alright, now it takes you three weeks just to get your conditioning back to where you can start to have a chance to improve.
And when that happens, you have a setback, which he did. And so, you kind of miss that window where you had a chance to gain on people. And then where you sit in Week 12, Week 13 behind a group of guys that are more consistent at this time in their career than you are.
And then it just, it becomes unfortunate for those guys. You know, when you have a losing season, you’re totally out of stuff and you just want to give guys chances and that’s all right. But, when you’re trying to compete for one seed, trying to compete just to get in the playoffs, you don’t experiment with that at the expense of the football team.
Watkins had an ideal opportunity as a rookie to step onto the field. The circumstances are different now with Mike Evans and De’Zhaun Stribling on the roster. Can he still find a way to contribute?
Basic Info
Age: 24
Experience: 1 accrued season
Height: 5’11
Weight: 196 pounds
Cap Status
Watkins’ cap number is just over $1 million this season. Most teams will give their players on rookie contracts the benefit of the doubt so long as they’re competent. Watkins has a long way to go before he’s “on the bubble” when he’s costing the team o.34 percent of their cap.
Watkins’ base salary is a hair over $1 million this upcoming season, and his signing bonus is $166,454, which brings his cap number for 2026 to $1,171,454.
A mix of Skyy Moore and Travis Benjamin
I imagine Watkins will be the Skyy Moore of 2026, but a more complete version. During OTAs, Watkins and Jacob Cowing were the primary kick and punt returners. Rookie wideout Will Pauling mixed in here and there, but the former two are the starters. Watkins was the only one who didn’t muff a punt.
Watkins can have the same kind of splash returns as Moore without fielding the ball inside the five-yard line and driving everybody in the stadium crazy in the process.
They have similar body types; Watkins ran a 4.37 40, compared to Moore’s 4.41. Moore reaches his top speed quicker, and that’s what made him a successful punt returner. Watkins’ 10-yard split was in the 65th percentile, compared to Moore’s 98th percentile 10-yard split.
The team tried to use Moore on offense, but to no avail. He couldn’t shake free, no matter where Kyle Shanahan lined him up. Interestingly enough, Watkins played most of his snaps at “X” as the isolated receiver. He only ran 15 routes, so there’s not much film to go off of Watkins as a rookie. Still, his usage stood out.
The first target of the season went from Watkins’ hands on a sail concept, 15 yards downfield from Mac Jones. It’s a pass he should’ve caught, but those are the kind of routes you can run with a 4.3 wideout.
Later on in the game, Watkins turned Kamari Lassiter around on a deep out route. He was two yards deeper than Kendrick Bourne. Somebody ran their route at the wrong depth, but one receiver was open, and one was not.
No player can find their footing when they’re not playing consistently. Watkins didn’t step onto the field until Week 8. He played in three consecutive games, but that was it until Week 16.
All in all, just 25 plays. And the first reception in that Giants game was more of a Mac Jones good throw than it was Watkins running a good route. He had a deep in-breaking route, but released to the outside. Luckily, Watkins was fast enough to reach his landmark in time, but outside releases are a big no-no on those kinds of routes, as they throw off the timing.
In that same game, Kyle Shanahan trusted Watkins to block down on Kayvon Thibodeaux from a condensed split. That led to a 16-yard run. That was never the case with Moore.
However, the trust ended after Watkins took the “easy way out” on that in-breaking route. He went from being the primary target to the receiver on the field who runs off coverage, essentially running dummy routes. Watkins showed that he was a competitive blocker, but that was the extent of his role as a receiver in Year 1.
They drew up a play for him against the Colts on a play-action pass. The offense came out in 13 personnel. Watkins ran a deep route and had a couple of steps on the cornerback. But Indianapolis has a defensive tackle named DeForest Buckner. He was lined up against Spencer Burford on the play. We’ll leave it up to your imagination to see how that 1-on-1 ended.
Ultimately, Watkins proved he can be used as a blocker and perhaps be the Travis Benjamin-esque type of receiver in Shanahan’s offenses over the years. The wideout that runs the long developing routes down the field when the offense wants to hit the home run. But Watkins must work on his intermediate route running if he’s ever going to be a consistent threat.
