If the San Francisco 49ers didn’t have bad luck with injuries, they wouldn’t have any luck at all.
Saturday brought a double dose of bad news for the 49ers, starting with wide receiver and former 1st-round pick Ricky Pearsall being put on season-ending injured reserve with a knee injury and followed by promising rookie wide receiver De’Zhaun Stribling missing practice with an injury.
“And 49ers rookie WR De’Zhaun Stribling is not practicing today due to what the team is calling hamstring tightness,” ESPN’s Adam Schefter wrote on his official X account on Saturday.
The 49ers shocked the football world by using the 1st pick of the 2nd round (No. 33 overall) on Stribling, 6-foot-3 and 208 pounds, who helped lead Ole Miss to the College Football Playoff semifinals in 2025.
49ers Warned Stribling Pick Could Backfire
After a full offseason of moves, the Stribling pick is still what’s befuddling NFL experts, including ESPN’s Seth Walder, who singled out drafting Sibling as the move he disliked the most for the 49ers in handing out his annual offseason grades.
“Jauan Jennings left in free agency (for cheap) for the Vikings, but the 49ers also added Christian Kirk and used its first draft selection on Stribling at pick No. 33,” Walder wrote on June 30. “The Stribling selection was a bit of a head-scratcher. He’d been a late riser, but this was a reach — and reaching in the draft is bad process.”
Stribling won’t exactly be cheap, either. He’s getting relatively big money compared to 2nd round picks of years past with a 4-year, $13.3 million contract.
NFL Draft Expert Tabbed Stribling for 2nd Round
NFL draft analyst Lance Zierlein correctly predicted Stribling as a 2nd-round pick in his pre-draft evaluation — ahead of where most other draft experts had him going.
Part of the hesitancy to draft Stribling so high was that he never had a true breakout season in 3 college stops at Washington State, Oklahoma State, and Ole Miss, but running the 40-yard dash in 4.36 seconds at the NFL Scouting Combine seemed to assuage most teams’ fears.
“The Niners didn’t just need a receiver, they needed to add some juice to that room after finishing last season without a single offensive player breaking the 20 mph mark with the ball in his hands, according to NFL Next Gen Stats,” ESPN’s Nick Wagoner wrote on April 25. “Stribling should help in that regard after running a 4.36-second 40-yard dash at the combine. That speed should help him get on the field right away even if he’s not a day one starter.”
For all of Stribling’s speed, it still seems like a reach to have taken him where they did — Zierlein also predicted he’d most likely be a WR4 to begin with. That seems like a player the 49ers could have gotten in the 3rd or 4th round — like where the Baltimore Ravens used consecutive picks on USC wide receiver Ja’Kobi Lane and Indiana wide receiver Elijah Sarratt.
Flip Side: 49ers Praised for Signing WR Mike Evans
While Walder called the 49ers out for drafting Stribling, he gave them just as much praise for signing veteran wide receiver Mike Evans to a below-market free-agent contract — a 2-year, $42.4 million deal because the former NFL All-Pro wanted to play for a contender.
“San Francisco scored an early victory in free agency, landing Evans on a three-year deal that pays him just over $14 million per year and is fully guaranteed for only the $14.3 million he’ll earn in 2026,” Walder wrote. “It was clearly a below-market deal, and it’s a testament to Kyle Shanahan and the 49ers that Evans wanted to take it to play for San Francisco. And it meant the team could upgrade at wide receiver without sacrificing its future financial situation.”
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