49ers, Christian Kirk agree to deal to add veteran receiver: Source

Eight-year veteran wide receiver Christian Kirk has agreed to a one-year free-agent deal with the San Francisco 49ers, a league source told The Athletic on Monday.

The 49ers added Mike Evans from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers last week. Jauan Jennings, their top receiver in 2025, remains a free agent.

Kirk is coming off a season with the Houston Texans in which he struggled to produce. In 13 games in 2025, he had just 28 catches for 239 yards and one touchdown. The yardage and one touchdown were both career lows, and the 28 catches were just one more than his career low, which came in 2024 when Kirk played in only eight games.

He was No. 138 among The Athletic’s Top 150 free agents and the 14th-best receiver available.

Kirk did have a big game in the playoffs for the Texans in the team’s wild-card win over the Pittsburgh Steelers, catching eight of nine targets for 144 yards and a touchdown. That was his first 100-yard game since the 2023 season. However, despite Texans’ star wide receiver Nico Collins missing the team’s divisional round game against the New England Patriots, Kirk finished with just two catches for 20 yards and a touchdown. Quarterback C.J. Stroud’s struggles also contributed to Kirk’s ineffectiveness.

Kirk was a second-round draft pick out of Texas A&M by the Arizona Cardinals in 2018. His best years came from 2020 through 2022. In 2021, he led all Cardinals receivers with 77 catches for 982 yards. The next year, after signing with the Jacksonville Jaguars in free agency, Kirk produced his first 1,000-yard season, catching 84 passes for 1,108 yards and eight touchdowns — all career highs.

Kirk followed that up with a stellar 2023 campaign before a collarbone injury cut his 2024 season short. The Jaguars traded him last offseason to the Texans in exchange for a seventh-round pick.

This story will be updated.