The bar set for 49ers first-round pick Brandon Aiyuk is not high if recent 49ers draft history is the barometer for his success. The team’s overall success in selecting wide receivers over the last 20 years has not been good. It can probably be better labeled as ‘disastrous,’ although Kyle Shanahan has started having some success. The first-round choices have been particularly rough. That’s where Aiyuk has a chance to snap a pretty dismal streak that dates back to 1986 – the year after the 49ers selected Jerry Rice in the first round.
Here are all the wide receivers San Francisco drafted in the first round since 1986:
1995, JJ Stokes (10th overall pick)
2004, Rashaun Woods (31st overall pick)
2009, Michael Crabtree (9th overall pick)
2012, AJ Jenkins, (31st overall pick)
2019, Brandon Aiyuk (25th overall pick)
There is a range of disasters among the four players prior to Aiyuk. As a whole they combined for 681 catches, 8,626 yards and 57 touchdowns in 207 games. They made zero Pro Bowls, earned no All-Pro nods, and amassed one 1,000-yard season among them.
Jenkins and Woods were particularly brutal choices. Jenkins had no catches in three games before getting traded. Woods caught seven balls for 160 yards and a touchdown in 14 games before getting traded. That’s a worst-case scenario that it’s hard to envision a receiver in Shanahan’s offense running into.
Stokes was a tier above them because he carved out a nice career that just fell short of expectations for the 10th overall pick. His best year came in 1998 when he caught 63 balls for 770 yards and eight touchdowns. He played for eight seasons with the 49ers, but only eclipsed 700 yards twice, and never emerged as a legitimate option to take over the No. 1 receiver mantle from an aging Jerry Rice. This isn’t a disaster type pick, but Shanahan is looking for more from Aiyuk.
Crabtree is a cut above the rest of the group. He earned the lone 1,000-yard season when he had 1,105 yards and nine touchdowns on 85 catches in 2012 – his fourth season. He was also stellar during the team’s Super Bowl run. An Achilles tear before the start of the 2013 campaign kept him from building on the previous year, and he never regained that success with the 49ers.
There’s a chance given San Francisco’s roster construction that Aiyuk can quickly put himself in a tier with Crabtree, or perhaps above it. He joins a group of pass catchers that includes All-Pro tight end George Kittle, and another dynamic wide receiver in Deebo Samuel. Aiyuk is at his best after the catch, and Shanahan’s offense will devise ways to get him the ball with a chance to create additional yards. If he gets up to speed quickly, he should have plenty of opportunities to outproduce 34 years worth of 49ers first-round wide receivers.