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The San Francisco 49ers have been real busy signing wide receivers who used to play for other NFC West teams.
First they signed ex-Rams first-round pick Tavon Austin, then they signed former Arizona Cardinals speedster JJ Nelson, and now they’ve got former Cardinals and former Seattle Seahawks receiver Jaron Brown.
This barrage of WR signings has been in part to make up for the loss of Emmanuel Sanders in free agency, as well as the unfortunate second straight season-ending injury to 2019 draft pick Jalen Hurd.
49ers are signing former Seahawks’ WR Jaron Brown, per source. Brown joins JJ Nelson and Tavon Austin as the third WR to sign with SF since camp opened. SF lost WR Jalen Hurd earlier this week to a season-ending torn ACL.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) August 19, 2020
Brown was with Seattle for the 2018 and 2019 seasons, amassing 30 catches for 386 yards and 7 touchdowns during that span. In 2018 he’d often catch a touchdown and then go weeks at a time without a catch. The emergence of DK Metcalf effectively put Brown out of Seattle’s rotation of pass-catchers towards the back-half of 2019, and it was always unlikely that he’d be re-signed.
I had mentioned the fact that Hurd tore his ACL during training camp and is out for the season, but Deebo Samuel is also on the mend after breaking his foot earlier this offseason. This has left San Francisco in a spot where they need to boost their receiving depth while Samuel recovers, as he’s not expected to play to start the regular season.