SANTA CLARA, Calif. — The decision by the San Francisco 49ers to draft De’Zhaun Stribling with the first pick of the second round in April raised some eyebrows with more accomplished college receivers still on the board.
The way Stribling has performed so far in practice and his exhibition debut have quieted those criticisms for now. Stribling caught seven passes for 63 yards in less than one half on Thursday night against Tennessee, outplaying the top receiver taken in this year’s draft in No. 4 overall pick Carnell Tate.
Stribling is well aware of the five receivers drafted ahead of him, but is more focused on his own play so far this summer as he hopes to play a big role for the 49ers as a rookie.
“I know who was taken ahead of me, but I just see it as this is my journey,” Stribling said after the game. “My journey is my journey. I’m not going to look at someone else’s journey, Because once I do that, I’m not going to be grateful or happy of where I’m at. So I’m just making the most out of my opportunities and what’s given to me.”
Stribling caught a pass on his first snap in an exhibition game with a 6-yarder from Kurtis Rourke. He couldn’t catch a slightly off-target throw on third down later in that drive and also lost 5 yards on a pop pass.
But he took over the game from there, catching all five targets on his final two drives, including an impressive contested catch on a 32-yard deep pass down the sideline and an 11-yard catch-and-run on third-and-6 when he broke a tackle and managed to stay inbounds to help set up a touchdown.
“I was just a little excited, a little nervous,” Stribling said. “But kind of getting the first hit out the way, the first catch out the way, you start getting into a groove and everything starts rolling.”
Stribling spent his first two seasons in college at Washington State and the next two at Oklahoma State before joining Ole Miss last season. He had 55 catches for 811 yards and six TDs to help the Rebels reach the semifinals of the College Football Playoff.
But the Niners thought highly enough of him to draft him 33rd overall. Stribling has shown a good ability in practice to create separation with his hands to go along with his impressive speed.
“I call him the ‘Flyin’ Hawaiian’ because he’s so fast,” backup quarterback Mac Jones said. “But he definitely is fast, but some guys, they can be really quick, but they’re not as strong, so he has both. I don’t have a comp for him yet, but I think he’ll be a really good player. … Just the way he got to the ball when it’s in the air was impressive. He has like a second gear when the ball’s in the air. Some guys are really fast, but when the ball goes up and your eyes go up, you slow down, but he doesn’t do that, so it’s pretty impressive.”
Stribling has been one of the bright spots early in training camp for San Francisco, making big plays almost every day and building chemistry with his quarterbacks, including starter Brock Purdy.
Stribling got right to work after being drafted and even joined Purdy and Jones in Tennessee during the break before training camp to get up to speed and earn trust from his new quarterbacks.
The Niners are hoping to get an immediate contribution from Stribling, especially after losing projected starter Ricky Pearsall to season-ending knee surgery early in training camp.
San Francisco signed Mike Evans in free agency in March and brought back Deebo Samuel for a second stint early in camp, but the hope is that Stribling will be able to step right into the rotation.
He has shown signs in training camp of being able to do that even though he missed a couple of practices with a tight hamstring.
“He’s handling it well,” coach Kyle Shanahan said after the game. “It was tough when he got hurt. He missed that week. Now he’s been back for a week. Hopefully he can string together two more of these weeks, because he’s going about it the right way and as long as he gets those reps and continues to do what he’s been doing, he should be ready for the season.”
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