SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Welcome to the reckoning, Jordan Watkins.

This is the most important week of your young NFL career, and it isn’t close.

Because the San Francisco 49ers’ wide receiver room hasn’t just thinned out. It’s been stripped straight down to the structural studs.

Kyle Shanahan and Brock Purdy don’t just need a dependable target, they need one immediately.

If Watkins can’t prove he’s that guy over the next few days of practice, his roster spot is merely a shrine to the sunk-cost fallacy.

Remember, Shanahan kept Watkins on cutdown day last month. That choice forced the 49ers to jettison players they could really use right now.

Now the Niners need Watkins, too.

Demarcus Robinson’s ankle sprain on Sunday looked nasty, and definitely not of the see-you-Thursday variety.

When a receiver unwraps his own tape while riding the cart, he knows the MRI results before the doctors do.

So add him to the list of the infirm.

Ricky Pearsall is out for the season, De’Zhaun Stribling is out until November, Christian Kirk can’t play until Week 5, and Robinson is now shelved, too. What once was the deepest position on the team has lost all of its buffer.

Oh, and Mike Evans has a barking hip, too.

Someone is coming to town to join the team in the coming days. It’ll probably be a veteran off the sofa signing to the Niners’ practice squad, but it could be a desperate pluck from someone else’s taxi squad.

Here’s what we know: Shanahan loves familiar faces the way a picky toddler loves chicken tenders. Not that I have any firsthand experience with that, of course.

Is Ray-Ray McCloud available to catch a drag route these days?

Are Trenton Irwin or River Cracraft ready to pack a bag, hang at a hotel, and run decoy crossers?

Maybe Malik Turner or Robbie Chosen can answer the distress call.

If Shanahan wants to poach another team’s practice squad straight to the 53-man roster, Trent Sherfield is in Buffalo, Isaiah Neyor is in Green Bay and Marquez Valdes-Scantling is with the Chargers.

But more important than all of that is the fact that Watkins’ audition starts right now.

If Watkins can’t beat out a street free agent by Friday after being inactive the first two weeks, why did the 49ers draft him?

If he isn’t active and playing 20 snaps Sunday against Arizona over a guy signed on Wednesday, why is Gracen Halton (cut to keep Watkins on the roster) on the Chiefs?

Why did the front office burn depth at defensive tackle and cornerback just to give Watkins a second redshirt year?

That isn’t how the NFL works. At least, that isn’t how it should work.

You either earn the trust to run the seam in this, a moment of need, or you become a sad trivia question.

There’s plenty to be excited about after the 49ers’ 2-0 start.

Brock Purdy looked like Neo in “The Matrix” on Sunday, completing 20 of 22 passes with chilling precision.

He’s playing at an MVP level, but he needs someone to catch the ball.

Evans will see double teams from this point forward.

Deebo Samuel isn’t the kind of player who can serve as a one-man offense anymore.

Jacob Cowing has special teams value, but he isn’t a viable, reliable option from scrimmage.

George Kittle galloped through Miami’s secondary, sure, but that’s the Dolphins. Kittle still needs to prove he’s fully himself against a team capable of winning a football game this season.

Watkins was drafted with the idea that he’d be a viable deep threat with open-field wiggle.

He’s been given time, patience, and a lifeline by making the roster after a miserable August.

It has to pay off now.

If Shanahan would rather elevate a 30-year-old journeyman than put Watkins, with his two career catches, on the grass, the evaluation failed.

This week isn’t about development for Watkins. That luxury is gone.

No, now it’s about performance.

And if it doesn’t show up, a very uncomfortable conversation likely will.

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