Who will be the 49ers best Wide Receiver next year?

Originally posted by Canadian9erfan:

Do we all forget 2 years ago when Kaep took over for Alex Smith? Crabtree went off for over 1,100 yds. He will easily be #1 WR by a mile. Might not have the most TDs (Vernon should, Boldin will get his as well) but most yards and receptions easily. Of course barring injury.

I expect big improvements from Kaep this year. No excuses for a bunch of 3 and outs with the weapons we have. 3 solid WRs, 2 young WRS as well (Patton, Ellington), a top TE in Vernon, and a handful of capable RBs. Now of course we need Roman to actually call good plays too.

Yeah, Roman and Kap have no excuses this year. I expect Kap to take a big step in his development this year but you're right, Roman has to call good plays and use the personnel he has to their strengths. I'm not all that confident but hopefully he proves me wrong.

Baalke is going to trade a 7th rounder in 2016 for Calvin Johnson. The point? Don't worry about it.

Originally posted by Afrikan:
I think it's going to be Stevie as well.... I just feel the amount of separation he gets with his route running and quickness will be too much to pass up for Roman's playcalling

I wanted to start a thread about how long until Johnson is the #1 receiver...but I've already said too many crazy things this month.

Stevie Johnson could look outstanding or like an average receiver depending on how the 49ers utilize him. Buffalo let him free-style a lot, basically gave him a lot of leeway on how he ran his routes as long as he got where he was supposed to. He does run routes in a very unorthodox fashion but its what makes him so difficult to defend. To use a baseball analogy, he's like a knuckleball pitcher coming in after you've been seeing fastball's and curveballs almost exclusively. He can throw a wrench into your whole program.

He's had success against Revis and Sherman precisely because they can't predict where he's going, he's got the ultimate poker face so to speak and that makes life difficult for guys like Sherman who thrive on routine, jumping routes and as a result making a play on the ball.


If the 49ers try to force him to get away from that and run routes the same as Crabtree, Boldin...etc.......I see him becoming less valuable overall.

Crabtree and He will be resigned. I think the goner is Iupati. With the 49ers not drafting a WR til the 4th round tells me that they are keeping Crabs Longterm which if he can stay healthy and play with Kap for a whole year I think is a GREAT move.

Originally posted by Wodwo:
Whoever Kaepernick throws to the most.

I don't give a f**k, as long as they win all the games and the Super Bowl.

Fixed

I'm curious as to how teams are gonna guard our receivers. I'm assuming Crabtree will be covered by the #1 CB, Boldin by the #2 CB and Stevie by the #3 CB with VD getting covered by the safety. I think having to play your third best corner is gonna equate to Stevie having a MONSTER year. Not to mention this is the best QB Stevie has played with in his entire career of football.

Originally posted by dompernick53:
I'm curious as to how teams are gonna guard our receivers. I'm assuming Crabtree will be covered by the #1 CB, Boldin by the #2 CB and Stevie by the #3 CB with VD getting covered by the safety. I think having to play your third best corner is gonna equate to Stevie having a MONSTER year. Not to mention this is the best QB Stevie has played with in his entire career of football.

That's assuming Kap keys in on Stevie's unortodox route running style. Might take awhile.

I don't know, I just hope we stay healthy at the position.

I was so excited about our passing attack coming into last season, and then Crabtree tore his achilles in training camp...

The best WR is going to be Michael Crabtree, with Boldin a close second. There will be games where teams scheme out one or the other, but overall Crabtree is the superior receiver. I believe the extent to which Stevie Johnson contributes relates to the amount of time he actually sees the field. Last season the 49ers didn't utilize 3-wide sets as much as other teams and that may have to change. In a way the Johnson and Ellington additions is really an indictment on Vance McDonald. I thought he was a pass catcher as well...?

The plus here is if one of our starters (Crabtree/Boldin) are having a rough game, we will also have the ability to sub in Johnson if he's perceived to be a better matchup. Roman has no excuses for a lack offense this season.

the one with the best stats

Originally posted by mayo49:
Crabs. He'll get the most targets.

I agree, it seems like Kaep will force the ball to Crabtree no matter what! Look at the super bowl and the NFCCG last year. Really doesn't matter how many WR's we bring in if Kaep can't read defenses or get through his progression without looking at crabtree too long!

Originally posted by OregonNiner87:

Originally posted by dompernick53:
I'm curious as to how teams are gonna guard our receivers. I'm assuming Crabtree will be covered by the #1 CB, Boldin by the #2 CB and Stevie by the #3 CB with VD getting covered by the safety. I think having to play your third best corner is gonna equate to Stevie having a MONSTER year. Not to mention this is the best QB Stevie has played with in his entire career of football.

That's assuming Kap keys in on Stevie's unortodox route running style. Might take awhile.

It may take awhile but at the same time isn't Kap the kind of QB who likes to throw it when his receivers are open rather than throw them open through anticipation? In this case, Stevie would be tailor made for Kap because Stevie gets open quite frequently with his freestyle route running.

Crabs unless he gets injured.

Originally posted by fropwns:

Originally posted by Wodwo:
Whoever Kaepernick throws to the most.

I don't give a f**k, as long as they win all the games and the Super Bowl.

Fixed

Thank you, good sir.

Originally posted by matt49er:

Originally posted by JTsBiggestFan:
I think the differences between the four vet WRs is like this:

Crabtree - great hands, very good route runner, very good RAC ability, decent deep threat
Boldin - amazing hands, very good route runner, ok RAC ability, jump ball threat
Johnson - decent hands, great route runner, good RAC ability, good deep threat
Lloyd - best 1 hand receiver in the game, very good route runner, good RAC ability, best boundary WR ever to play for SF

This is very exciting stuff. I think Crabs benefits a lot for his time in the system and CK, along with having a lot of great all around ability -- so I still think he's the top WR on the 49ers. These same guys on a different team could be different.

A lot of nitpciking with regards to "hands" with all of these guys except Stevie. But Stevie has given the top CBs in the game more trouble than anybody we have.

not to nitpick, but Brandon Lloyd isn't the best at anything among WRs for the 49ers. A guy named Jerry Rice is the best at literally everything WR for the 49ers and is the best boundary WR of all time in the NFL.

Come on, stop being a 49er homer.

Best boundary WR ever was Cris Carter of the Vikings.

Next thing you know you will say Rice was the best deep threat of all time, better than Moss in his prime.

Guy was amazing, greatest all time WR.

But let's keep things in focus.

And if you need more clarity, in the post Mariucci suckage era till the Harbaugh revival, Lloyd has shown great boundary abilities both in SF and other teams. We'll leave off the great one, John Taylor, TO, Dwight Clark, Freddie Solomon, etc. to avoid hurting feelings.