At 4:25 p.m. ET, the San Francisco 49ers will defend their home turf against the St. Louis Rams, who up-ended the rival Seattle Seahawks for the second time this season.
Jeff Fisher‘s team always seems to come up big against division rivals, but the San Francisco 49ers aren’t exactly a marquee foe for the Rams to “play up to”. Worse yet, the Niners are on a three-game losing streak, and that’s despite the fact that future touted backup quarterback Blaine Gabbert played a clean game against the Detroit Lions last week in a 32-17 loss.
Related Story: How many 49ers are among the greatest RBs in NFL history?
The 49ers have issues all over the place and have had few encouraging displays from players, particularly on the offensive side of the ball, but one of those rare exceptions has been tight end Vance McDonald.
More from NFL Spin Zone
- Dallas Cowboys made the trade everyone else should have made
- Pittsburgh Steelers rookie sleeper everyone should be talking about
- Anthony Richardson putting jaw-dropping talent on display immediately
- Denver Broncos’ stud wide receiver might be out for a while
- Washington Commanders: Three takeaways from win over Ravens
After doing a grand total of jack squat in his first two years in the league, the former second-round pick out of Rice has come on strong. McDonald has become a real contributor in the 49ers offense, joining forces with taken-for-granted veteran possession receiver Anquan Boldin to move the chains for Gabbert and the 49ers offense.
Last week, McDonald took advantage of a Lions secondary that is among the worst in the NFL at covering tight ends to catch five of seven targets for 61 yards and a touchdown. The score was his third of the season, and this comes from player who literally had zero touchdowns coming into this third season in the NFL.
This afternoon, McDonald will take the field against a tough Rams defense that is among the best in the NFL at limiting big plays, as evidenced by the fact that they are sixth in the league in touchdowns allowed. Even without Robert Quinn, Aaron Donald and the ludicrously underrated William Hayes have ensured that the Rams pass rush remains dangerous, and their defensive line will be a handful for the 49ers offensive line to contend with.
Meanwhile, the Rams allow 59.1 receiving yards per game to tight ends, per Football Outsiders, and that’s the only position that can even be considered a weakness of theirs in coverage. It means that Gabbert and the 49ers will likely need to lean on McDonald today, making him a legitimate X-Factor in this tough matchup.
The Lions game was McDonald’s second-best game of the season (after his 6/71/1 line against the rival Arizona Cardinals a handful of weeks ago), and he continues to build positive momentum at the end of the season with the dink-and-dunk-minded Gabbert running a possession-based offense.
The 49ers will find it extremely difficult to score points today against the Rams, but McDonald should be someone whom Gabbert targets early and often in this one. Another seven targets seems like a reasonable prediction, though it is quite difficult to project what the 49ers will do in any given week as far as their offensive gameplan goes.
What we do know is that McDonald’s three games with over 50 receiving yards have come in the six games that Gabbert has started this season, and it’s fair to say that he’s become one of the former first-round quarterback’s favorite targets.
With a 65.9% catch rate that leads the five 49ers with at least 20 receptions this season, McDonald is making the most out of his opportunities, and he should be a prime target for Gabbert this week on the few occasions this team makes it into the end zone against St. Louis.
More nfl spin zone: Who are the NFL's most overpaid players?
Drops are still an issue for McDonald, but production is no longer an issue. Given his draft pedigree and the fact that the 49ers stuck by him after two poor years, talent isn’t an issue either.
This is a game for players like McDonald to show off their future value to the fans and the organization, which makes this game even bigger for the starting tight end.