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Dieter Kurtenbach: Keenan Allen will help Brock Purdy -- that makes it a winning move for the 49ers

Dieter Kurtenbach, The Mercury News on

Published in Football

Unlike countless Hollywood actors and Silicon Valley tech lunatics with millions to burn, the San Francisco 49ers aren’t fighting their age.

In fact, they spent this trade deadline doubling down on being old.

The Golden State Warriors got themselves into trouble chasing two timelines; at least Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch know what they’re about.

So welcome to the pigskin geriatrics convention, Keenan Allen.

While a large swath of the fanbase held out hope for a franchise-altering blockbuster or a magic cure for a bruised defense, the Niners did what they always do: they threaded the needle between desperate aggression and bureaucratic prudence.

They didn’t land a depth corner or a clear-cut No. 1 safety, nor did they snag an edge rusher or a tight end to lighten George Kittle’s workload.

Instead, they sent a 2027 sixth-round flyer to Indianapolis to bring in a receiver in his 14th year in the NFL.

Allen is far from the player he was in his prime, but watching his snaps over the last two seasons, there is still a lot there.

And I bet Brock Purdy will unlock it in a way that Daniel Jones couldn’t.

Because if you turn on the tape from Allen’s stint with the Indianapolis Colts, you see a guy whose solid if unspectacular routes were sandbagged by an offense — OK, a quarterback — that couldn’t get him the ball.

Watching Jones try to hit Allen on a 15-yard out route was a jarring experience, only made worse by the Colts wearing their hideous all-gray alternate uniforms.

Allen isn’t running past anyone on a go-route, but his craft at the stem — creating subtle separation, boxing out defensive backs and snapping off whip routes — remains pristine if a bit slower than when he was one of the league’s preeminent wideouts.

Think of Allen not as a replacement for Mike Evans — though that is the role he will likely fill in the next couple weeks with Evans sidelined — but rather as an insurance policy who provides the exact intermediate zone-beating skill set Jauan Jennings perfected.

There’s a reason that the Niners went after a reunion with Jennings first. They knew what they were looking for: a possession receiver. When they were rebuffed by the former Niner, they added the next-best thing. Allen isn’t the same physical force as Jennings with 50-50 balls or blocking, but, particularly with the former, he’s no slouch, and his ability to move all around the formation and give you a little bit of wiggle downfield is better than what Jennings offered.

 

When you look at how Purdy attacks coverage in this offense, he desperately needs wideouts who can do the right thing on third down, when pocket pressure is usually ratcheted up. In the Niners’ current scenario, those options were Brandin Cooks and Jacob Cowing. Purdy overtly wanted nothing to do with any of them.

In fact, his frustration with some of his receivers has been so demonstrative on the field I asked him about it after the win over the Las Vegas Raiders.

Purdy, whose smarts extend to the podium, didn’t say he wasn’t frustrated.

Purdy doesn’t need a burner out wide; he needs someone he can trust. Without Evans, that was Jordan Watkins. Yes, the second-year wideout had a nice game against one of the worst defenses in the NFL in the Raiders on Sunday, but do you want to bank on that being his standard form down the home stretch of what should be a championship-contending season?

Of course not.

Now, could the Niners have done more at the deadline? Absolutely.

I’d argue that Lynch should’ve been more aggressive addressing the secondary and adding a depth tight end.

But DeForest Buckner proved himself to be a force multiplier in his first game — why do you think Osa Odigizuwa had his best game as a Niner Sunday? — and Allen will be a move that will pay the kind of immediate dividends that were necessary with Minnesota and Seattle’s defenses looming in Weeks 11 and 12 — two games you can’t count on Evans to play.

Still, that’s only two insurance policies for a team that needed at least three, and, more realistically, four.

Getting competent depth at wide receiver without surrendering meaningful draft capital is classic San Francisco. They didn’t mortgage the future, and they gave Shanahan another chess piece who can line up at the X, slide into the slot and keep the offense on schedule while Evans and Deebo Samuel work through their ailments.

It isn’t sexy, and it won’t satisfy the fans dreaming of splashy names. But it’s appreciably good. Pair it with another deft move in Buckner and it’s good-enough work from the 49ers’ front office.

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