The 49ers have a bona fide problem with their red zone scoring. They finished last in the league in red zone touchdown rate last year, and they’re 29th in the league through seven weeks this year. They tried to remedy the issue by taking wide receivers Deebo Samuel and Jalen Hurd in Rounds 2 and 3 of this year’s draft. Samuel has scored only one touchdown in five games, and Hurd is on injured reserve with a back ailment. Trading for wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders might finally remedy their red zone woes.
Sanders isn’t the prototypical red zone target. He’s listed at 5-11, 180 pounds on the 49ers’ website. However, he’s produced at an exceptional clip in the red zone in his career.
Of his 39 career receiving touchdowns, 26 of them have come inside the 20. 22 of them have come inside the 10.
Scoring touchdowns in the red area is perhaps the biggest weakness the 49ers offense has. They’ve still managed to put up 26 points per game and go undefeated through six contests.
While there are speed and quickness elements to Sanders’ game, he’s a 10-year veteran and a surgical route runner who rapidly creates space in a short areas. Size in the red zone matters less when there’s multiple yards between a receiver and the nearest defender. That’s also why he’s so good at moving the chains. He has more catches for first downs (17) than the 49ers’ leading receiver, Deebo Samuel, has catches (15).
At 32-years old and coming off a torn Achilles, Sanders isn’t at his athletic peak anymore. He is still a very productive player though who should help San Francisco’s offense clean up their biggest weakness right away. If he can do that, the 49ers could quickly assert themselves as the consensus favorite in the NFC.
