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Shortly after head coach Mike LaFleur said Bourne’s injury could be season-ending, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reports Bourne suffered a fractured tibia that will sideline him for the next three months, effectively ending his season. Bourne caught 26 passes for 263 scoreless yards in his first season with the Cardinals. He remains under contract for the 2027 season, but the Cardinals can release him for a dead cap hit of $2.2 million.

It’s a tough break for Bourne, who was getting more involved with the offense following the trade of Marvin Harrison Jr. to the Texans. If his season is over, he finishes it with a 26-263-0 receiving line on 38 targets. He also topped 70 yards twice in the seven games he appeared in. Bourne signed a two-year, $10 million contract earlier this offseason but can be released by the Cardinals in exchange for a $2.2 million dead cap hit. It wouldn’t be surprising if the 10-year vet was playing elsewhere next season.

Bourne limped to the sideline and later the locker room with trainers in a sequence towards the end of the half where the Cardinals lost three offensive skill players in just four plays. Bourne had a 29-yard catch before exiting. It seems likely he’ll miss multiple weeks and perhaps be a candidate for injured reserve.

Bourne and Jalen Brooks each saw six targets, though neither was awfully productive. Brooks weny for 35 yards but only caught one pass. Bourne brought down half of his targets at a dreadful 1.5 yards per target. Bourne will hold a slight edge in the Week 8 rankings when Arizona takes on Dallas, but neither Arizona WR2 will be more than a desparation FLEX play.

Bourne got going with a 15-yard catch-and-run on the Cardinals’ third drive. He earned a third-down end zone target from the Rams’ three-yard line, running an out route just inside the goal line, but he was unable to secure the pass, resulting in a close incompletion. He later bagged a tight-window catch on the Cardinals’ first drive after halftime, helping the offense down the field for one of their six field goal drives. The crafty veteran remains a PPR FLEX starter against the Broncos next week.

Bourne looks like a viable FLEX starter for those in need. His 70 receiving yards were a team high, and his eight targets trailed only Trey McBride (10). The journeyman receiver delivered two 20-plus-yard gains via post routes, the first coming on the Cardinals’ first drive and the second on the seventh. Jacoby Brissett tried to force another downfield shot to Bourne on the latter drive, but it didn’t work out. Bourne is running high-value routes in the center of the field, playing for a garbage-time team with a cannon-armed quarterback. The results could be volatile at times, but he is worth starting in the FLEX against the Rams next week.

Bourne operated as the Cardinals’ No. 3 wide receiver, seeing just three targets in a high-volume passing day. The team’s pass-catching hierarchy seems to have settled in, with Michael Wilson and Marvin Harrison operating as the top wide receivers and Trey McBride the top tight end. Bourne will get some looks behind this group but won’t be fantasy relevant without an injury ahead of him.

Bourne earned his first target on the Cardinals’ fourth drive. The throw was a tad late, and Bourne’s hesitated while running his route, so the pass glanced off his hands in the flats. He caught the next two, but barely cleared double-digit yardage. Bourne does not need to be rostered in 12-team leagues.

Bourne led all Arizona wideouts in targets, catches, and yards. He ran a route on 82 percent of the Cardinals’ drop backs. Jacoby Brissett found Bourne in the short and intermediate areas throughout the first half — averaging a meager five air yards per target — while Michael Wilson and Marvin Harrison Jr. worked mainly downfield. Bourne could be an interesting waiver add this week in deeper PPR formats if his usage keeps up.

The deal has a max value of $12 million. Bourne has been a consistent depth receiver throughout his career, most recently catching 37 passes for 551 yards for the 49ers in 2025. He has cracked 500 yards three times in nine seasons, profiling best as WR3 or lower on the depth chart. He’ll be exactly that for the Cardinals, who are fortifying the pass-catchers behind Marvin Harrison Jr. and Michael Wilson as they figure out their quarterback plans.

Bourne went for 142 yards in Week 4, 142 yards in Week 5, and 180 yards from Weeks 7-18. It was a fun ride. Bourne enters free agency as a respectable outside depth receiver, but he hasn’t cracked 600 yards since 2021 and will need extreme circumstances to be fantasy-relevant going forward.

We miss the Mac Jones/Kendrick Bourne friendship. Since going for exactly 142 yards in back-to-back games in Week 5 and Week 6, Bourne has managed a total of 111 yards in four games, with just nine targets. If you were holding on to him hoping that Mac Jones would eventually get back to his main man, you can let go of those dreams. It looks like it will take injuries to make that happen again.

Bourne began October with a pair of 142-yard games as the 49ers dealt with a slew of skill position injuries. He has totaled seven catches for 92 scoreless yards in three games since. With George Kittle and Jauan Jennings healthy, Bourne is off the fantasy radar heading into Week 10.

He played 38-of-48 snaps for the 49ers, but hasn’t been as involved since Jauan Jennings and George Kittle came back last week, with just five targets in two games. Bourne looks like a drop candidate for most leagues at this point, certainly shallow leaguers don’t need to hold anybody with five targets in two weeks.

After amassing 284 yards the previous two games while working as the top pass-catcher, the returns of Jauan Jennings and George Kittle left Bourne with only two targets on a night quarterback Mac Jones attempted only 26 passes. It is clear that Bourne is capable of returning solid counting stats when he serves as the top option through the air, but that might not be the case as the team continues inching closer to full health. Bourne should remain on fantasy benches ahead of a Week 8 meeting with the Texans.

It’s the second-straight game over 100 yards for Bourne, who had the lead role in the offense and added 61 yards after the catch to being the main deep threat for Mac Jones. We can only speculate who may be available for the 49ers next week with Jauan Jennings banged up and Ricky Pearsall’s knee acting up, but if Bourne remains one of the top options on the depth chart and Mac Jones starts, the two appear to have good enough chemistry working to keep Bourne on the WR3 line against the Falcons.

30-year-old Patriots castoff Bourne entered this evening with exactly one career 100-yard performance, hitting 100 on the dot in Dec. 2022 for the Pats. He also had only one prior 10-catch outing. His missed connection was a third down drop, but it was an otherwise flawless performance over the middle of the field as Bourne filled in for George Kittle, Ricky Pearsall and Jauan Jennings. The Niners now have 10 days to get (much) healthier for Week 6 against the Bucs, but Bourne could end up maintaining some WR4 fill-in appeal for that one.

Bourne had 38 snaps, just ahead of an injured Ricky Pearsall for second on the team, and he would manage to drop three passes on four targets while generating one yard after the catch on his completion. So uh, those are definitely numbers. Not good ones, but numbers nonetheless. Bourne could conceivably have PPR scam relevancy next week if the higher-tier members of the 49ers receiving room remain out, but there’s not much unexplored upside here.

Bourne stepped in as the 49ers’ No. 2 receiver with Jauan Jennings inactive for this game. He was the only wide receiver other than Ricky Pearsall to see more than one target. Bourne is a better real-life player than a fantasy asset. Even if Jennings remains out for Week 4, Bourne will top out at a WR5 ranking versus Jacksonville.

Playing just six days after returning to San Francisco, Bourne was the injury-plagued Niners’ No. 3 wideout. Bourne is known for making rugged catches over the middle of the field and being difficult to mark in the red zone, but those are attributes that figure to take him farther on the real-life gridiron in his return to San Fran than in fantasy leagues.