Amidst the dominance of Sunday's victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the San Francisco 49ers now find themselves needing to shore up their wide receiver depth. Joshua Morgan has reportedly fractured his ankle leaving the 49ers with three healthy wide receivers on the active roster in Michael Crabtree, Ted Ginn Jr. and Kyle Williams. Braylon Edwards is continuing his recovery from knee surgery. He conceivably could be back this week, but my money (all nothing of it) is on him sitting through this week and coming back 100% after the bye.
As the 49ers consider their options for the upcoming Lions game, they really only need four wide receivers active. When you've got Vernon Davis and Delanie Walker on your team, you've got the equivalent of two big hybrid wide receivers. When the 49ers spread it out, odds are high that Walker and Davis will be part of that. Accordingly, they simply need four active receivers.
Edwards could play this week, but for the purposes of this situation, let's just assume he will sit out. If that's the case, the 49ers would need to bring in another wide receiver either from the practice squad or via free agency. As would be expected, one of the first names mentioned was Terrell Owens. Shortly after that Randy Moss popped up. Let's cut to the chase. The 49ers are not signing TO and they're not signing Randy Moss. It's just not happening. Feel free to bookmark this page and laugh at me if I prove wrong, but I just don't see it.
What I do see is one of a few options:
1. Promote Joe Hastings or John Matthews from the practice squad
2. Sign Dominique Zeigler or Kevin Jurovich off the street
3. Sign some other player we don't know
If I had to make a prediction, I'd go with number one. Hastings has the playbook and Matthews is a Harbaugh guy from USD. Dominique Zeigler is likely a very close second but I'm going with number one based on the lengthy studying of the playbook by Hastings and Matthews. I don't know enough about Hastings or Matthews to be positive about that, but it makes some sense.
I think those are the two best options at this point because that fourth receiver likely will be primarily a special teams guy. For the Lions game, if Braylon Edwards sits, Ted Ginn likely moves back into the starting spot and Kyle Williams is the number three guy. Even the three guy doesn't get a lot of looks in this offense. In yesterday's win, Ted Ginn got no targets (he was in on a reverse) and Kyle Williams had one look.
How do you see the situation developing for the Lions game? If you think Edwards is back, feel free to mention that, but also include a comment as to how it might otherwise play out if Edwards is unavailable.