De’Zhaun Stribling caught seven passes for 63 yards in one half against Tennessee on Thursday night, most of it against a starting-caliber defense. PFN’s Jacob Infante had already made the call onFootball Debate Club, and his case had less to do with the rookie than with the men standing in front of him.
“He was a little bit of a reach, people thought, when they took him with the first pick in the second round, but he’s been really, really good in training camp,” Infante said. “And if you look at that 49ers wide receiver room, there’s a serious opportunity for him to make plays.”
Why De’Zhaun Stribling Is the Best Rookie Sleeper in 2026 Fantasy Drafts
That room has been gutted. Ricky Pearsall is on injured reserve after season-ending PCL surgery. Christian Kirk has been nursing a calf strain since camp opened. Brandon Aiyuk hasn’t played an NFL snap in more than 600 days and sits on the reserve/left squad list, ineligible to play anywhere after publicly refusing to file for reinstatement.
“Brandon Aiyuk isn’t coming back anytime soon. Who knows if he’s ever going to play football again,” Infante said. “Deebo Samuel is in the mix, and so is Mike Evans, but both of them at this stage of their careers, they’re both over 30, realistically, their best football is behind them.”
Samuel is exactly 30, not past it, and he’s back on a one-year deal worth up to $7 million after a season in Washington. Evans turns 33 this month and is coming off a career-low 368 yards in eight games. Evans signed for three years, Samuel for one. Stribling’s rookie contract runs four.
“Stribling definitely has the highest ceiling of the bunch,” Infante said. “He’s 6-2, he’s got legit 4.3 speed. He’s going to see a lot of playing time anyway because of his blocking ability, but he’s also showing really good hands and really good ball skills in training camp.”
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The skepticism wasn’t baseless. Stribling never cleared 1,000 yards in a college season and finished 2025 at Ole Miss with 55 catches for 811 yards. PFN’s own CFB WR Impact metric graded him 88th in the country. The 49ers sided with the tape over the box score.
The 40 time checks out at 4.36. The blocking matters more, because it’s the most reliable way for a young receiver to earn snaps in this offense, and it keeps him on the field through the weeks when the targets don’t come.
Kyle Shanahan Is the Real Risk in the Stribling Bet
Shanahan is famously slow to trust rookie receivers. Deebo Samuel in 2019 is the exception people reach for, and it’s a short list. Two days before the Titans game, after a joint practice, Shanahan lowered the temperature. He said the 49ers know Stribling’s ability, and that what comes next is a stretch of situations the rookie hasn’t faced. He expects him to fail in practice a number of times, but thinks he’s made of the right stuff to get through it.
That isn’t a knock. It’s a coach who has put young receivers in the doghouse before telling you the learning curve is coming. Then Thursday happened, and his review bent positive anyway.
“I thought he struggled a little bit on the first drive, but I think he got three drives after that,” Shanahan said. “It seemed like he executed all the stuff that went to him, and I liked how his hands looked out there and played physical.”
He also confirmed the 49ers have been moving Stribling around the formation, which matters more for his outlook than the yardage did.
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One wrinkle nobody is pricing in. San Francisco opens Sept. 10 against the Rams at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, the first regular-season NFL game played in Australia. The 49ers are flying in a week early to absorb the 17-hour time change. Stribling’s first regular-season snaps arrive halfway around the world.
Infante isn’t worried about the setting. He’s worried about the price.
“If you haven’t drafted yet, I definitely recommend using one of your last picks on Stribling,” he said. “There’s serious upside for him to be a massive steal this year.”
His ADP in PFN’s mock draft simulator sits at 188.2. If your league drafted last week, he’s on the waiver wire right now. He won’t be in two weeks.
This article originally appeared on Pro Football Network.