Nick Wagoner
Multiple Authors
SANTA CLARA, Calif. — For the second time in a week the San Francisco 49ers added a veteran to their wide receiver room, agreeing to terms on a one-year deal with Christian Kirk, a source told ESPN.
Kirk spent last season with the Houston Texans after a three-year stint with the Jacksonville Jaguars and his first four seasons with the Arizona Cardinals. The deal is for up to $6 million, sources told NFL reporter Jordan Schultz, who first reported the agreement.
For the Niners, Kirk’s addition is the latest to a receiver room that is amidst significant renovation. The 49ers signed Mike Evans to a three-year, $42.5 million deal in the opening hours of free agency last week.
The addition of Evans and Kirk offers the Niners some proven production at the position with Jauan Jennings, Brandon Aiyuk, Kendrick Bourne and Skyy Moore either already landing elsewhere or expected to in the coming weeks or months.
Jennings is an unrestricted free agent after he and the Niners could not come to an agreement on an extension last offseason. He has yet to sign with another team after the first week of free agency.
Aiyuk is all but certain to be gone with general manager John Lynch saying in January that he has played his final snap as a Niner. Lynch indicated that transaction would come after the new league year begins, which happened last Wednesday.
Because the new league year is underway, the 49ers can release Aiyuk at any point and designate him a post-June 1 cut. That would allow them to spread his dead money cap hit over two seasons.
So far, the 49ers have held on to Aiyuk as Lynch has said the team would continue hoping for a trade to materialize. Because trades can’t be given the post-June 1 designation, the 49ers would have to be willing to take on the entire dead money hit of $29.585 million in 2026 if they did find a trade partner for Aiyuk before June 1.
Still, Aiyuk’s departure from the Niners remains a when, not an if. Meanwhile, Bourne (Arizona) and Moore (Green Bay Packers) have already found their next NFL homes in free agency. As it stands, the Niners have Evans, Kirk, Ricky Pearsall, Demarcus Robinson, Jacob Cowing and Jordan Watkins as their primary options at receiver.
San Francisco has six picks in the first four rounds in April’s NFL draft at its disposal if it wants to continue adding at the position.
Kirk is coming off a 28-catch, 239-yard, one-touchdown season in Houston in which he missed four games and battled hamstring injuries for much of the season. He also had an eight-catch, 144-yard performance in an AFC wild-card win against the Pittsburgh Steelers, which set a Texans postseason franchise record.
In San Francisco, Kirk figures to work into the mix as a slot receiver option with Evans at the ‘X’ position and Pearsall as the ‘Z.’ Kirk, 29, could also be an option in the return game following Moore’s departure, though he hasn’t returned any kicks or punts since 2023.
A second-round pick by the Cardinals in 2018, Kirk has 432 receptions for 5,415 yards and 30 touchdowns in eight seasons.
ESPN’s DJ Bien-Aime contributed to this report.
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