Who Should I Start? Trent Taylor or Colton Dowell

Wednesday, June 4, 6:35 PM

The San Francisco 49ers announced on Tuesday that they placed wide receiver Trent Taylor (undisclosed) on Injured Reserve and signed receiver Malik Knowles to an undisclosed one-year deal in a corresponding move. It's unclear exactly what Taylor's injury is, but he's now expected to miss the entire 2025 season. The 31-year-old former fifth-round pick (177th overall) in 2017 out of Louisiana Tech spent the first three years of his career in the Bay Area before going to the Cincinnati Bengals for two years and the Chicago Bears in 2023. In just two games in his return to the Niners last season, Taylor caught his only target for an 11-yard pickup. Taylor has been a depth piece in his career and has a total of 88 receptions for 845 yards and only three touchdowns on 138 targets over 80 games played (three starts) since debuting in 2017.

Tuesday, May 20, 11:33 PM

Tennessee Titans wide receiver Colton Dowell (knee) has been taking part in organized team activities this week after missing the entire 2024 campaign following a torn ACL and meniscus in Week 17 of 2023. Dowell was the team's seventh-round selection (228th overall) in the 2023 NFL draft out of UT Martin. He appeared in only 10 games (one start) in his rookie season and hauled in one of his two targets for three yards. Most of his playing time that year came on special teams. Dowell is once again healthy, though, so he'll be gunning for a bigger role on offense heading into the 2025 campaign this fall. He'll be facing an uphill battle to even make the 53-man active roster out of training camp, though, as he's currently buried on the receiver depth chart behind Calvin Ridley, Tyler Lockett, Van Jefferson, Treylon Burks, rookies Elic Ayomanor and Chimere Dike, and James Proche II.