{"id":269947,"date":"2026-03-23T12:00:45","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T16:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/?p=269947"},"modified":"2026-03-23T06:02:29","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T10:02:29","slug":"49ers-land-brandon-aiyuks-replacement-in-latest-mock-draft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2026\/03\/23\/49ers-land-brandon-aiyuks-replacement-in-latest-mock-draft\/","title":{"rendered":"49ers Land Brandon Aiyuk’s Replacement In Latest Mock Draft"},"content":{"rendered":"

The San Francisco 49ers wide receiver room will look different in 2026, and one prominent mock draft believes they’ll continue to add bodies to the position. After having one of the league’s most stable groupings for years on end, the 49ers traded Deebo Samuel<\/a> last year, will part ways with Brandon Aiyuk in the coming weeks, and could lose free agent Jauan Jennings to the open market. While they have signed veterans Mike Evans and Christian Kirk as outside support, both players are closer to the end of their careers than the beginning and are not long-term solutions.<\/p>\n

With this in mind,\u00a0Bleacher Report’s\u00a0<\/em>Dame Parson<\/a> has the 49ers selecting Indiana’s Omar Cooper<\/a> in the site’s latest mock draft. Cooper, a redshirt Junior, finished the 2025 college football season with 69 receptions for 937 yards and 13 touchdowns.<\/p>\n

“Cooper is a tough run-after-catch receiver with 4.4-second 40-yard dash speed and the ability to high-point passes,” Parson said. “Cooper fits Kyle Shanahan’s mold for a power receiver who can create after the catch and win at all three levels of the field.”<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n

49ers Select WR Omar Cooper In Latest Mock Draft<\/h2>\n

Interestingly enough, NFL.com’s Lance Zierlein’s professional comp<\/a> for Omar Cooper is Deebo Samuel, and it’s easy to see the comparisons. Despite being a bit smaller than your typical wide receiver, Cooper is a physical player who has no issue with fighting through contact and using his body to get as many yards as possible on any given play. He also has the versatility to line up as a slot receiver and on the outside, making him all the more dangerous for the creative offensive mind.<\/p>\n

Kyle Shanahan might just be the best in the league at scheming up yards, which means a player like Omar Cooper could thrive in this environment. The Indiana product is nearly impossible to take down in the open field, and nobody’s better than Shanahan at creating open space. Omar Cooper should be a great long-term fit for this organization, and 49ers fans should be happy if this mock draft comes true. However, can he make an immediate impact?<\/p>\n

San Francisco’s Depth Chart<\/h3>\n

Even after signing Mike Evans, the 49ers could use another wide receiver or two. Former first-round pick Ricky Pearsall<\/a> is promising, but he’s only one person. Evans, meanwhile, is one of the best receivers of his generation but struggles to stay healthy and is on the wrong side of 30. Additionally, he has a dramatically different skillset from the rest of the roster, so he shouldn’t get in the way of Cooper’s playing time. Christian Kirk, meanwhile, is nothing but a depth option at this stage in his career.<\/p>\n

If this mock draft comes true, Omar Cooper should have no issues finding playing time with the 49ers. He’d immediately be the WR3 and give the team some much-needed depth if injury strikes Pearsall or Evans. With those three, tight end George Kittle, and running back Christian McCaffrey, San Francisco should have one of the deepest and most dangerous offenses in football.<\/p>\n

Main Photo: Kirby Lee – Imagn Images<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The San Francisco 49ers will not have Brandon Aiyuk in 2026, but a new mock draft has them finding a player who could replace his production<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2376,"featured_media":269949,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[36,33761,1647,6431,31],"tags":[33533,33998,34321],"class_list":["post-269947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl-news","category-mock-drafts","category-nfl-draft","category-nfl-teams","category-49ers","tag-2026-nfl-draft","tag-omar-cooper-jr","tag-san-francisco-49ers-draft"],"modified_by":"David Latham, Managing Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2376"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=269947"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269947\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":269965,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269947\/revisions\/269965"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/269949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=269947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=269947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=269947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}