Marquise Goodwin has chance to do something no 49ers WR has done since Jerry Rice

The San Francisco 49ers scored big in free agency with the addition of wide receiver Marquise Goodwin, with a strong running putting him on track for 1,000 receiving yards this season. The numbers have been goosed the past few weeks, and he has a chance to do something only Dwight Clark and Jerry Rice have done in franchise history.

The 49ers sent out their weekly run through of some random statistics. According to the numbers, if Goodwin hauls in 100+ receiving yards this week, he will join Clark and Rice as the only players to do that three straight games in a single season. He had 114 yards last week, and 106 the week before. He actually had 99 the week before that, so he almost already completed the trifecta.

He faces a huge test this weekend against the Jacksonville Jaguars and their top-ranked pass defense. He is likely to get plenty of time against Jalen Ramsey, who is having a great year. If Goodwin manages a 100-yard day, he will most definitely have earned it.

The game offers Goodwin a reunion with his first NFL head coach. The Buffalo Bills drafted Goodwin in 2013, and Doug Marrone was head coach his first two seasons. Marrone talked to 49ers media and gushed about Goodwin’s speed.

“Obviously I loved him. I can’t say enough good things about him. I know, and I’ve said this before the season, when I first was with Marquise, he’s the fastest player on the field. I’ve always said he’s the fastest player I’ve seen on the field, and I’ve been around some fast players — Santana Moss in New York, Reggie Bush was a fast player — and we had probably the fastest group of guys in Buffalo, with Leodis McKelvin, we had Gilmore, we had all those guys thought they were the fastest, and I was like no, there’s no one faster than Marquise. He’s a great kid, works extremely hard, and it’s not surprising to me to see the success that he’s having. It’s really not. Obviously I’m happy for him, and I know that he’s someone that we have to make sure we keep an eye on, because he can run right by us at any moment.”

One of the big questions about Goodwin was whether he could be more than the proverbial one trick pony who just runs a go route. He has emerged as a presence in all phases of the passing game, and Marrone is not surprised by that. He was asked about Goodwin’s evolution into making more than just deep catches.

“I can’t say from when I was out of Buffalo, but for us, we had some pretty good guys that were inside for intermediate range, and Marquise was someone that could always take the top off. But, we knew if we ever had any injuries to Hogan or Woods or Sammy, that we always knew that Marquise can go and play all the different positions. So, for me, it was never a matter of, this is something that he can’t do, but from a schematic standpoint where I was in Buffalo, that’s not how we planned it. It’s not shocking to me, or anything of that nature, because of his work ethic — and the way he worked when I was with him, and I’m not, like I say, everyone’s like, even in our building, people were like, sheesh, I can tell you, shit I’ve been around this kid. This kid’s an unbelievable worker, dedicated athlete, and he can do a lot of things. We knew that when we were in Buffalo. So, I’m not surprised.”

Goodwin faces his toughest test of the year on Sunday against the Jaguars. I don’t know yet if he will strictly face off against Jalen Ramsey, or if he will get some work against other cornerbacks, but it will be a challenge either way. Much like we are trying to figure out what Jimmy Garoppolo can do against tougher competition, we’ll get to see how Goodwin looks in a step up in competition.