This 49ers WR could be a breakout threat no one saw coming

It's easy to look at the San Francisco 49ers' wide receiver room and have a lot of concerns.

Brandon Aiyuk is still rehabbing from last year's torn ACL and MCL. Both Jauan Jennings and Jacob Cowing are dealing with leg injuries, and second-year standout Ricky Pearsall has been dinged up, too, leaving an array of relatively unproven commodities to see more time during training camp.

Yet that group includes veteran wide receiver Demarcus Robinson, one of the Niners' offseason free-agent pickups who spent the last two years in a similar offense with the Los Angeles Rams after tenures with both the Kansas City Chiefs and Baltimore Ravens.

Robinson, who'll turn 31 years old at the beginning of the regular season, comes with a caveat. He's awaiting a possible suspension from the NFL for a DUI last year, but that likely doesn't change the fact San Francisco is looking at the 2016 fourth-round draft pick out of Florida to be a potential X-factor in head coach Kyle Shanahan's offense.

There's a good chance that happens.

Demarcus Robinson could be 49ers' biggest offensive X-factor

Robinson had largely been a tertiary receiver during his pro travels, only once cresting 500 yards receiving in a single season while usually hitting somewhere between 250 to 470 yards any given season.

But, his 2024 campaign resulted in a career-best 505 yards in L.A. in head coach Sean McVay's system, one not unlike the offense Shanahan operates. And in that system, Robinson was still looking up the depth chart at Los Angeles wideouts like Puka Nacua and now-Seattle Seahawks receiver Cooper Kupp.

Still, the 6-foot-1 and 202-pound Robinson was a clutch go-to option, logging a career-best seven touchdowns out of his 31 receptions.

Robinson's skill set should translate well over to Shanahan's system, and the context is there for the former to thrive (pending a suspension's conclusion, of course). With Aiyuk likely out for the first four weeks of the year, at the least, Jennings and Pearsall are the clear Nos. 1 and 2 on the depth chart, putting Robinson in a bona fide No. 3 role.

Should a rapport develop between the veteran and quarterback Brock Purdy, there'd likely be a continuation of Robinson's late-blooming surge stemming from last year, possibly matching or even besting his 2024 career-best numbers.

From San Francisco's perspective, that'd be a best-case scenario.