ATLANTA – Jordan Watkins entered his second NFL season on the periphery of the San Francisco 49ers‘ roster. He fought through training camp – and some injury luck – to earn the last spot in the receiver room.
But four others played ahead of Watkins, a healthy scratch the first two weeks, to start the season.
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Head coach Kyle Shanahan told reporters earlier in the season that Watkins approached him for a conversation. Not in a confrontational way. He wanted to know what he needed to do to play.
Watkins learned that there wasn’t anything he could really do to change his situation, he told the Chronicle at the time. Shanahan said it was simply a “number’s game.” Watkins was going to have to hope for some luck, mainly in the form of injuries, to earn his shot.
Perhaps a bit sacrilegious.
But then rookie second-round pick De’Zhaun Stribling went down. And then Demarcus Robinson. And then Deebo Samuel. And then Mike Evans. Watkins, slowly and slowly, became more and more of a necessity for the 49ers.
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All of a sudden, Watkins has played starter-level snaps each of the past two weeks. On Sunday against the Atlanta Falcons, he earned career highs in catches (three) and yards (56) in a 29-20 loss at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
The 49ers trotted out just four wide receivers Sunday due to a lack of depth at other positions. Shanahan said Friday that it was the fewest active and healthy receivers he began any game with in his coaching career. Part of the logic: replacing Malik Turner, primarily a special teams player who was up from the practice squad last week, with the previously-injured Christian Kirk, a longtime veteran, would create some extra receiver depth. But Kirk didn’t provide any juice Sunday. He received zero targets. Brandin Cooks caught one ball for 13 yards. Jacob Cowing added three catches for 38 yards.
“We had four active receivers, which, I don’t know if we’ve ever done that in the Kyle Shanahan era,” tight end George Kittle said. “We usually have five.”
That put the 49ers in the same spot they found themselves in during the second half of the Commanders game last Monday. No player not named Kittle, Christian McCaffrey or Kyle Juszczyk caught a pass from Purdy in the first half.
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The second half became a moment of reckoning for Watkins, the 138th overall pick in the 2025 draft. Was he going to continue to play his snaps, run his routes while not attracting the eye of his quarterback? Or was he going to earn some touches, getting himself so open to catch the ball that Purdy had no choice but to look his way?
In the second half, Watkins chose option No. 2.
After going silent in the first half, Watkins caught three passes for 56 yards in the second. He also caught a would-be touchdown early in the fourth quarter, which would have brought the 49ers’ deficit to within one touchdown, but the officials ruled upon review that Watkins did not have full possession of the ball when he came down with it in the left corner of the end zone.
“I thought I got two feet in, but I guess I lost possession at the end,” he said.
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If Watkins let another week of opportunity slip away, he risked not being on the team any longer. San Francisco has a bye week approaching, and in the coming weeks it expects to return a handful of receivers such as Samuel, Robinson and Evans. The return of Stribling, who Shanahan gave a 10-week recovery timeline for an ankle injury in Week 1, also looms in the distance.
Did Watkins feel that pressure to perform, to possibly decide his fate as a 49er, on Sunday?
“I wouldn’t call it pressure,” Watkins said. “I feel like it was more, ‘It’s time to step up.'”
“Me and Brock have been working since camp, so obviously there’s a lot of trust there,” he added. “We just got to keep getting reps at it and we’ll see when those guys come back. Until then, I’m ready to step up and make plays.”
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Purdy said Thursday that he wasn’t avoiding giving the ball to Watkins, who had three catches for 82 yards this year before Sunday, in games. He had full belief in the 24-year-old wideout who possesses 4.37 speed in the 40-yard dash. He just had never found the right opportunity.
“Watching the film and stuff, that’s definitely a guy that I’m like, ‘Yeah, I’d love to get the ball to him,'” Purdy said Thursday. “I want to have our connection get better and better.”
Watkins didn’t just make an impact as a receiver. In fact, his loudest play came in an area of the game he had previously viewed as a weakness.
He made a key downfield block that directly freed up running back Kaelon Black for a 30-yard touchdown in the second quarter, holding Falcons cornerback A.J. Terrell Jr. in place for about four seconds while Black attacked a hole in the middle of the defense.
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An Ole Miss product under Lane Kiffin, Watkins said blocking was rarely emphasized to him in college. But when he was drafted, Watkins quickly learned about one of the key phrases pertaining to 49ers wide receivers.
“No block, no rock.”
Where did Watkins learn about the saying?
“That’s what I’ve seen on Twitter a lot,” Watkins told the Chronicle. “When I first got drafted here, obviously I was super excited, looking my name up, just trying to see what everybody’s saying. So that was one of the things I heard.”
Watkins knows what’s going to keep him in Shanahan’s good graces, which in turn will keep him on the roster. He had to think long and hard about the type of player he was going to be, as he toiled with his 49ers career possibly coming to an end.
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It’s why Watkins has since made two aspects of his game non-negotiables.
“Make sure that you’re in the right spot (when running routes),” he said, “and s-, just block your ass off.”
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This article originally published at 49ers receiver Jordan Watkins finally gets his chance, improves odds of expanded role.
