De'Zhaun Stribling 2026 Season Preview — what we know, and what nobody does | Muffed

San Francisco made De'Zhaun Stribling the first pick of the second round. Fantasy drafts make him the seventy-sixth receiver, at pick one ninety-six — a hundred sixty-three picks between where the league drafted him and where you can. It has a Shanahan-shaped explanation.

The record: pick thirty-three, Ole Miss, per the team site — a five-year, three-school college road with over twenty-nine hundred career receiving yards, per the club's draft notes. The coordinator, Klay Kubiak, put his vision on the record in May, per NBC Sports Bay Area: a complete football player, big, fast, powerful, a strength as a route runner — quote, that's our vision for him as far as the long term. Note the last four words.

[[SITUATION]]

The situation: total turnover. Last season's leading Niner wideout — Jauan Jennings, verified at six hundred forty-three yards — is in Minnesota now; Mike Evans and Christian Kirk arrived in March to replace him, per ESPN. Ricky Pearsall, verified, gave them five hundred twenty-eight yards in nine games. Stribling enters fourth in line for Brock Purdy's targets, in an offense famous for feeding whoever's healthy and open.

[pause] That long-term quote is the tell: day-two receivers in San Francisco develop on the team's schedule, not your draft's — and neither capital nor spring praise predicts the timing at a standard we'd cite. Pick one ninety-six is a patience price. The evidence starts in September.

Watch: preseason snaps opposite Evans when Kirk rests — that's the role that becomes real first — and any August injury above him on the depth chart, the historical accelerant in this building. [[CLOSE]] If he's one of your guys, this show exists for your whole roster — every player, every week, all season.