It appears the San Francisco 49ers are quickly seeing some of the adversity generated when a wide receiver misses all of training camp.
Wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk and quarterback Brock Purdy haven’t been able to get on the same page in the 49ers’ first two games. Aiyuk, who missed all of training camp because of dispute over a long-term contract extension, has 10 targets so far this season. He’s hauled in six of them for 71 yards. His longest catch went for 22 yards.
Part of the blame can fall on his playing time. Through two weeks he’s played 73 percent of the 49ers’ offensive snaps. Last year he played in 82 percent. In 2022 he was at 91 percent.
There’s more to it than just playing time, and there appears to be more to it than just Aiyuk getting in playing shape. While playing shape may have been a problem in Week 1, peripheral stats indicate Purdy just didn’t get Aiyuk the ball in Week 2.
Pro Football Focus ran the numbers on separation for pass catchers through two weeks. They have a metric called ‘separation percentage’ which aims to measure “how often a receiver beats the coverage to get open rather than benefiting from a defense more focused on limiting yards after the catch or stopping them short of the first down,” according to their website.
Week 1 wasn’t good for Aiyuk. He created separation on only four of his 12 opportunities. Those numbers help paint the picture of why he earned only five targets.
Week 2 was substantially better. Per PFF he had 14 opportunities and gained separation on 12 of them. His 85.71 separation percentage was the sixth-best in the NFL in Week 2. Alas, the uptick in separation didn’t lead to an uptick in targets. Purdy threw him the ball only five times again.
This is something that has to get remedied immediately. All indications are that Aiyuk is trending quickly toward his All-Pro form. Purdy now needs to look his way with more frequency. That was always going to be the case, but there’s a dramatic uptick in urgency with Deebo Samuel joining Christian McCaffrey on the sidelines with a calf injury.
Purdy and Aiyuk need to get on the same page because the quicker they do, the quicker the 49ers can overcome injuries and solve some of the offensive issues that have plagued them on third down and in the red zone so far in 2024.