49ers-Rams: What should happen to Ronnie Bell?

There’s a lot of blame to go around for the San Francisco 49ers’ loss to the Los Angeles Rams, and a lot of it is not on the offensive side of the ball. Notice there are still a few people who deserve to get called out, and no one better than Ronnie Bell.

Ronnie Bell was drafted in the 2023 NFL draft. For his rookie season he was most notable for filling in at punt returner when Ray-Ray McCloud was injured. It wasn’t too hot. While Bell never had an official lost fumble, his ball security issues as a rookie were on full display with multiple dislodges of the ball. He was fortunate due to the ball going out of bounds or his forearm juuust touching the ground before the ball came loose.

Regardless, it was scary and concerning.

In 2024 with the wide receiver injuries (or training camp skips) Bell was called onto the offense. A wonderful opportunity that game in and game out has shown little improvement.

If you check Pro Football Reference you’ll see Ronnie Bell has zero (0) drops. His tape tells a different story. There have been passes he easily could make a play on or at least use his hands to catch, and he never did. None were more obvious than his game-winning “drop” at the end on Sunday. Either it’s miscommunications, pressure, or something else, but something with Bell is not working. We’ve seen him as a punt returner, we’ve seen him as a wide receiver, and neither has inspired any potential.

Kyle Williams produced a better second season than Ronnie Bell, and he played most of his first season injured. Let that one sink in.

At this point, have we seen enough? Is one full season plus a second training camp and a few game-day reps enough for the 49ers to open up a roster spot? We can all point to his atrocious drop Sunday—that is inexcusable, but when you combine it with his aforementioned issues, it makes it even more infuriating.

The 49ers are rallying behind him. Brock Purdy is even trying to take responsibility for “giving him a better ball,”

“We all got Ronnies back,” Purdy said in his post-game press conference. Given that Deebo Samuel was injured Sunday, Brandon Aiyuk has been rusty, and Ricky Pearsall is still recovering from a gunshot wound, the 49ers may be in a worse spot releasing him. Clearly, fans’ patience is wearing thin.

One game-costing drop isn’t a good reason to release a wide receiver. Multiple drops, possible fumbles, ball security issues over two years, lackluster punt returns (from those ball security issues), plus a game-costing drop in your third season is a reason especially when those prior problems have no sign of getting better. And double-especially when you are buried on the depth chart and have not done anything to take advantage of your opportunity when given a chance.

The 49ers have Ricky Pearsall on injured reserve and will need to clear a roster spot when/if he is activated. The obvious move would be to drop a wide receiver while adding another. Given what we’ve seen from Bell, that might make the 49ers’ decision easy when the time comes.