2025 Fantasy Football Position Battles: 49ers Wide Receiver Shuffle

This is the first of the weekly training camp updates of the Job Battles series, monitoring the various position battles around the league and weighing the fantasy football significance of the latest news.

You can read the offseason fantasy football position battles roundups of the quarterbacks/running backs here and the wide receivers/tight ends here. There were also three news update editions addressing the Tennessee backfield (here), Pittsburgh wide receivers (here) and Chiefs running backs (here). 

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Training Camp Week 1 Updates

Omarion Hampton vs. Najee Harris (eye), RB, LAC

This blurb is one of two where the position battle in question was affected by unfortunate off-field circumstances. In this case it's the eye injury suffered by Najee Harris in a fireworks accident.

Thankfully, Harris' injury has been declared superficial and is not expected to affect him in the long term. It might affect the training camp battle between Harris and Omarion Hampton, however. Whichever player ends up at the top of the Chargers depth chart should offer substantial fantasy value.

There's an inevitability to a prospect like Hampton, the 22nd overall selection in the 2025 draft, and any missed time for Harris could hasten Hampton's full arrival. Once Hampton takes hold of this offense in earnest he almost certainly won't let go. Coach Jim Harbaugh claimed the Chargers declined multiple major trade offers for that 22nd pick, and that they didn't expect Hampton to make it that far. Harbaugh might like Harris, but he loves Hampton.

Then again, the Chargers intend to run the ball more and better than anyone in the league. For them to do so might require both Hampton and Harris over the full course of the season, if only to avoid overworking Hampton, especially in low-leverage situations.

While either or both of Hampton and Harris should be useful in fantasy this year, those chasing upside should probably root for Hampton. Hampton matches or exceeds the power of Harris but poses much more big-play ability. 

Harris has yet to log a 40-yard carry in the NFL, but Hampton and his 4.46 speed could cover such distances multiple times per year, beginning with the 2025 season. In fact, if Hampton sees enough work then he has what it takes to be a standout RB1 in fantasy, even as a rookie.

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Jerome Ford vs. Dylan Sampson, RB, CLE

The second of the unfortunate circumstances — the position battle between Jerome Ford and the rookie fourth-round pick Dylan Sampson was thrown into the spotlight due to the domestic violence arrest of Quinshon Judkins, the 36th overall pick in the 2025 draft.

There's a strong chance Judkins misses some amount of regular season time due to suspension, and in the meantime Judkins' acclimation to the offense is in some amount of question. The Browns need to prepare at this point as if they won't initially have Judkins available, which means getting Sampson and to a lesser extent Ford up to speed in the early-season game plan.

That's not to say Sampson will be a greater part of the game plan than Ford, however. Sampson is small (5-foot-8, 200) and has merely good rather than great speed (4.46-second pro day 40). Despite offseason comments from running backs coach Duce Staley that Sampson might work at wide receiver, there's no evidence in the meantime that Sampson is particularly viable on passing downs.

Sampson's pass blocking has to be a concern in particular. Sampson is tough and runs with plenty of motor, so effort isn't the issue, but if he doesn't get better than he was at Tennessee then he might be liable to get clobbered in blitz pickup.

Ford, meanwhile, is nothing if not proven on passing downs. Not many running backs have played as many snaps as Ford over the last two years, and Ford was clearly productive with those 1,099 snaps. For his career Ford totaled 1,390 rushing yards and seven touchdowns at 4.4 yards per carry, fumbling only once in 397 touches from scrimmage.

Sampson might have more raw running ability than Ford, but that's not guaranteed, and whatever advantage Sampson might have over Ford from scrimmage is probably exceeded by Ford's advantage on passing downs.

The Browns will likely utilize both Ford and Sampson if Judkins is unavailable. Neither is built for workhorse functions the way Judkins is, so neither can be expected to claim as much work as Judkins might have before the arrest.

Jauan Jennings vs. Ricky Pearsall, WR, SF

Jauan Jennings is the presumed WR1 for the 49ers while Brandon Aiyuk (knee) is unavailable, so it made waves when Jennings unexpectedly announced a demand for either a new contract or a trade, right at the start of training camp.

Matt Barrows of the Athletic reported that Jennings is expected to report to San Francisco training camp anyway, but it's still not clear how things will proceed from that point. If Jennings is not practicing in full, it introduces a potential complication to his otherwise solid 2025 projection.

If Jennings misses time or lags in any way on the field due to a disrupted training camp then it might be Ricky Pearsall in particular who would capitalize. Pearsall has durability concerns after dealing with hamstring troubles both last year and during the 2025 spring. If Pearsall is fully healthy, though, he would present an interesting big-play threat in an offense that might have no choice but to send targets his way.

Pearsall's legendary 2024 NFL Combine showing speaks to his unique explosiveness – 4.41-second 40, 42-inch vertical, 129-inch broad jump, 6.64-second three-cone drill – and such explosiveness could yield significant fantasy utility if featured extensively in Kyle Shanahan's game planning.

Demarcus Robinson, Jacob Cowing and Jordan Watkins are probably the next guys up after Jennings, Aiyuk and Pearsall. Robinson is the one of the three most likely to compete for boundary snaps – both Watkins and especially Cowing project more as slot types – but even Robinson might face a short suspension after pleading no contest to a November DUI charge. 

In other words, the 49ers' depth chart becomes a scramble from WR4 onward. Cowing might have the most upside from scrimmage between himself, Robinson and Watkins, but if Cowing can't earn boundary reps then his role might prove too small as a slot specialist to scale up easily.

The 49ers probably don't have the boundary receiver depth to meet their 2025 ambitions without Jennings, so it will be interesting to see if San Francisco pays up to get Jennings locked in for the season or makes some other move to shore up that region of the 49ers depth chart.

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