Monday night's loss to the Seattle Seahawks could have had a very different outcome had the San Francisco 49ers wide receivers done quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo some favors by hauling in a few more catchable passes.

Having Emmanuel Sanders available for the entire game could have helped, too.


Could the 49ers find some more help elsewhere? How much confidence does the team have in the current group following the disappointing defeat, the team's first of the season?

General manager John Lynch joined KNBR on Thursday and was asked about the 49ers' receiver situation, and he discussed the topic at length.

"We'll always look to try to improve ourselves," Lynch said on the "Tolbert, Krueger and Brooks" show. "I mean, a lot of that has come and gone. The trade deadline has passed. There is another avenue of looking at other people's practice squads.

"Emmanuel was a little bit of a unique situation in that he's such a veteran, and he was playing in a very similar offense. Coming in mid-stream, and doing that is difficult.

"We do have belief in this group. They had a rough night the other night. We expect them to catch the football better, and I think we left over 100 yards in drops out there."


Lynch believes Garoppolo's performance, which has been criticized itself, would have been looked at very differently had the drops not occurred.

Garoppolo finished the game 24-of-46 for 248 yards with a touchdown and an interception.

"You can't have seven drops," Lynch continued. "We had that the other night, and they were big. At the end of the day, if we just catch five of those, I think everybody thinks Jimmy played a great game, and we find a way to win that football game.

"We're constantly looking to improve. I will tell you we've got a lot of belief in this group. Marquise (Goodwin) has had a tough road these last couple of years. We've dealt with that, and I think he's going to come out on the other end. We need guys like he, and (Dante) Pettis, and Richie James, and Kendrick Bourne --"

Lynch paused there to discuss Bourne in more detail, saying that he believes the third-year receiver has some of the better hands in the league. That's a similar evaluation to one provided by head coach Kyle Shanahan.


"I think Bourne has as good of hands as anyone in this league, and sometimes when you do that you don't focus, you don't concentrate on it because you're never scared of dropping it," Shanahan said this week.

Lynch noted that the team would not lose confidence in its receivers because of the poor outing on Monday night.

"We'll get Emmanuel back at some point, and we expect these guys to go make plays," Lynch added.

You can listen to the entire conversation with Lynch below.



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