{"id":12151,"date":"2025-10-19T02:09:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-19T02:09:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/12151\/"},"modified":"2025-10-19T02:09:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-19T02:09:08","slug":"49ers-address-kendrick-bournes-impressive-return-to-san-francisco","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/12151\/","title":{"rendered":"49ers address Kendrick Bourne’s impressive return to San Francisco"},"content":{"rendered":"

The San Francisco 49ers<\/a> have dealt with several injuries on the offensive side of the ball, leaving them looking for someone to step up and be the team’s top wide receiver, and Kendrick Bourne has stepped up and answered that call.<\/p>\n

Bourne signed with the 49ers<\/a> in Week 2 and has since caught 23 passes for 371 yards in his five games, including back-to-back 142-yard performances against the Los Angeles Rams<\/a> and Tampa Bay Buccaneers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The 30-year-old’s efforts have not gone unnoticed, as 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan discussed his impact in a media availability earlier this week.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, for someone just to hop in here Week 2 and get thrown into a starting role by Week 4, I\u2019ve been very appreciative that we\u2019ve been able to have Bourne here,” Shanahan said. “He\u2019s helped us out a lot. By no means is it perfect, like anybody, but he\u2019s getting better each week at catching up with the offense and stuff like that. I feel we\u2019ve been fortunate to have him, though.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bourne began his NFL career with the 49ers, who signed him as an undrafted free agent out of Eastern Washington in 2017, Shanahan’s first year with the team. Since then, everyone’s seen him grow and mature into a veteran and a leader.<\/p>\n

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\u201cYeah, he\u2019s unbelievable now,” Shanahan said. “I think he is like one of the more adults in the building, which I don\u2019t think I would\u2019ve ever said that six years ago. But K.B. was late like his first few weeks, and then he corrected that before his rookie year ended. He got really consistent with being on time after he started out a little bit bad, but by the time K.B. left here, I thought he was extremely mature and had come a long way in his four years I believe he had with us. Then just now seeing him four, five, six years later, whatever it\u2019s been, he\u2019s a grown-up. Speaks like he went to an Ivy League now. Got a very good, strong foundation in his faith and love having him in the building, always have. It\u2019s just as good now, if not better.\u201d<\/p>\n

49ers offensive coordinator Klay Kubiak was still coaching prep school football when Bourne was in San Francisco for the first time, joining Shanahan’s staff in 2021 as a defensive quality control coach. However, he also shared the admiration for the wide receiver.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s real impressive, how much he\u2019s playing, given how short a time he has been here,” Kubiak said on Thursday. “He\u2019s been kind of forced into that role because of the injuries. He is just super competitive. He\u2019s making plays. It\u2019s not perfect. There\u2019s stuff he\u2019s got to clean up every week, but he\u2019s totally bought in, and he\u2019s just getting better. He\u2019s learning and he\u2019s competing and it\u2019s showing up on the field on Sunday. So, he has been a huge contributor for us and just really cool to see that, and happy to see him keep getting better.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Bourne left San Francisco in 2020, it was to sign a three-year deal with the New England Patriots, where he teamed up with Mac Jones a year later. Now that Jones and Bourne are together again with the 49ers, the quarterback is even more appreciative of the opportunity to play together.<\/p>\n

“So, with K.B., I obviously watched him here,” Jones told the media. “I didn\u2019t know him that well when he was in San Francisco, but I came in as a rookie and we were in OTAs or whatever, and it was COVID, but we were throwing on some practice field and K.B. just comes out and he\u2019s got his chains on and he\u2019s just smiling and laughing. I\u2019m like, this guy is pretty crazy, but he is just a great guy and worked really hard. He\u2019s just gone through such a reformation, through his journey with Christ and everything, too. And I just really lean on him as a good friend of mine, and I really just love the guy, and he\u2019s one of my best friends. So, really just happy we got to reconnect here, and we really want to keep going. We\u2019re not satisfied with anything, and we want to keep building and not be complacent and work every day and earn it.\u201d<\/p>\n

With Ricky Pearsall out another week, Bourne will be one of Jones’ top weapons again, and with their connection, he has a chance to have another big day on Sunday.<\/p>\n

More 49ers: 49ers vs. Falcons picks: Who do experts predict will win in Week 7?<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The San Francisco 49ers have dealt with several injuries on the offensive side of the ball, leaving them…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12152,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[243,101,103,102,104,106,105,10224,10225,378,507,11112,11110,1347,11111,379,366,374,1349,367,377,372,246],"class_list":["post-12151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-accessfree","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news","tag-sstssportsnflniners","tag-sstsnniners","tag-tagamerican-football","tag-tagcalifornia-gold-rush","tag-tagkendrick-bourne","tag-tagkyle-shanahan","tag-taglos-angeles-rams","tag-tagmac-jones","tag-tagnational-sports","tag-tagnfl","tag-tagnfl-hub","tag-tagoverall-positive","tag-tagsan-francisco-49ers","tag-tagsports-news","tag-tagtampa-bay-buccaneers","tag-typestory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12151"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12151\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}