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As if the 49ers needed more offensive weapons in their arsenal, they’ve managed add to their impressive array of skill-position players this season with seventh-round pick Ronnie Bell, who broke through with two catches in the Week 3 win over the Giants, including a touchdown on his first reception. It’s clear the 49ers think highly of Bell, who was a seventh-round pick out of Michigan in the draft, chosen with the 253rd pick (out of 259).
But Bell’s emergence has come while the 49ers have had wide receiver Danny Gray on injured reserve and, after Sunday’s Week 4 game against Arizona, Gray will be eligible to rejoin the team. Gray has been out since the tail end of training camp with a shoulder injury.
It probably won’t matter, anyway. Gray, described by NFL.com as, “Explosive and loose-limbed with three-level ability,” before the 2022 draft, very well could have lost his spot already to Bell, as San Francisco Chronicle 49ers reporter Eric Branch in his mailbag this week:
“Bell, a preseason revelation who scored the first touchdown against the Giants, isn’t going anywhere. And it’s not clear that there’s a spot for Gray on the roster when he’s eligible to come off IR after Week 4.
“The 49ers often keep five wideouts, and those spots are taken: Aiyuk, Samuel, Jauan Jennings, Ray-Ray McCloud and Bell, a rookie seventh-round pick who had two receptions for 24 yards and a strong tackle on a 3-yard punt return Thursday.”
Gray Has Had Trouble Staying Healthy
That would be a pretty stunning turn of events, considering that Gray was a third-round pick of the 49ers in 2022. And coach Kyle Shanahan had good things to say about Gray just two months ago, as training camp was ramping up.
“I think he’s having a real good camp,” Shanahan said in a press conference on August 3. “He put the work in phase one, two and three. He was able to get through OTAs working hard and not having an injury. And he obviously spent the 40 days away well because he’s catching the ball, he’s in real good shape, and he’s been out there very consistently and the ball came his way a little more today.”
But injuries can really hamper young players, and that appears to be the case for Gray, who has struggled to remain on the field. He was listed as active in 13 games last season but was on the field for only 87 offensive stats. He was targeted seven times but had just one catch all season, for 10 yards.
Ronnie Bell: ‘Always Ready’
Still, Bell has taken advantage of his opportunities, not only with Gray injured, but with Brandon Aiyuk out in Week 3, too. That, he said, has been part of his M.O. throughout his athletic career, which took him from a lightly recruited all-around athlete, to Jim Harbaugh’s Wolverines and now, despite his lowly draft status, to a role with the 49ers.
“I’m just blessed and always ready,” he said after the Week 3 touchdown. “I kind of feel like the position I was put in being drafted seventh round is a position that I have found myself in multiple times throughout this football journey. So, it isn’t anything I wasn’t used to and I just feel really blessed to have a healthy and good summer in camp. I just to get the opportunity, I’m forever thankful.”
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