By all standards, 49ers unrestricted free agent wide receiver Willie Snead has had a successful NFL career. He has survived in the league for nine seasons, caught 281 passes for a total of 3,445 yards and accumulated 16 career touchdowns. Financially, he has also been successful, earning more than $17 million in his career, according to Spotrac.
Not bad for an undrafted free agent from Ball State.
Snead, however, seems to believe that his time in the NFL is not over, even after a season in San Francisco where he only caught two passes in four games. This comes after a year in which Snead did not make any catches at all, despite making four appearances for the 49ers.
He seems to believe that his lack of productivity is more related to the politics of playing time in the NFL than to his talent. In a mysterious and cryptic post on Twitter/X this weekend, Snead stated that
“All I want is to return to a team that is not afraid to let guys compete for a roster spot. These last 3 years have been nothing less than entitlement … Competition breeds Champions.” Snead wrote.
49ers' Receiving Statistics Dominated by Star Performance
Snead has been with the 49ers on veteran minimum contracts for the past two seasons, and has clearly been overshadowed on a depth chart that is dominated by the team’s top two wide receivers, Deebo Samuel and Brandon Aiyuk. They accounted for 268 of the 49ers’ 674 receptions in 2022 and 2023, which is 39.7% of all catches.
The next group of 49ers pass-catchers consisted of the non-receivers, with tight end George Kittle and running back Christian McCaffrey—both stars in their own right—collectively making 264 catches in two seasons. That equates to another 39.1% of the team’s catches.
Third wide receiver Jauan Jennings landed 54 catches in the last two seasons, which accounts for 8% of the team’s receptions. When you add it all up, almost 88% of all 49ers catches went to those five players, of which only three are receivers.
Snead referred to “entitlement,” but did not explicitly specify who he was referring to. Aiyuk and Samuel, both among the best in the NFL? Kittle and McCaffrey, who are also two of the best in the league? Jennings, who only had a few catches in the games?
Willie Snead Potentially Referenced Raiders
Of course, Snead also mentioned the last three years, and he had a eventful 2021 season before joining the 49ers, where he has moved between the active roster and the practice squad.
He left his original team, the Saints, and signed with Baltimore for three years. He was only 29 when he joined the Raiders in 2021, but did not stay for the entire season with them, and requested his release in October of that season after receiving only limited playing time, playing just 8% of the team’s snaps.
There may have been some resentment towards Snead's treatment in Las Vegas, where former Raiders third-round pick Bryan Edwards and ex-Bills second-round pick Zay Jones (who was acquired by the Raiders through a trade in 2019) were ahead of him on the depth chart. Perhaps that's the entitlement in question.
Snead also was on the Panthers during that time period.
Difficult to determine what Snead was specifically posting about. It's also uncertain where his future in the NFL is—if, at 31 years old, he has a future in the NFL at all.