The San Francisco 49ers saw 2024 1st-round pick Ricky Pearsall’s rookie season essentially become a wash as he recovered from a gunshot wound.
Even though he played in 11 games and finished with 31 receptions for 400 yards and 3 touchdowns as a rookie, there was little to be gleaned from his play coming off such a serious injury.
In 2025, the 49ers got to see the real Pearsall. And it wasn’t pretty. He started the season on the PUP list and ended up missing 8 games due to hamstring and PCL injuries while putting up 36 receptions for 528 yards and didn’t score a touchdown.
For all intents and purposes, the 49ers have made offseason moves that seem to indicate they’re totally out on Pearsall, who is entering the 3rd season of his 4-year, $12.5 million rookie contract.
NFL.com’s Nick Shook went the other way. He put the former Florida star on his list of “potential risers” who could have breakout seasons in 2026.
“Pearsall’s career has known nothing but unexpected interruptions, Shook wrote. ” … San Francisco’s receiving corps certainly could have used more help in 2025 and the club acted accordingly in 2026, luring Mike Evans away from Tampa, signing Christian Kirk and spending the first pick of the second round on De’Zhaun Stribling. Consequently, Pearsall will operate in a deeper receiver room that won’t allow opposing defenses to key on him, setting up the 25-year-old for a breakout season — provided he can stay on the field.”
Pearsall’s Stock Went Soaring Before Draft
Pearsall spent the first 3 seasons of his college career at Arizona State, where he had 48 receptions for 580 yards and 4 touchdowns in 2021 before transferring to Florida.
In 2 seasons at Florida, Pearsall had 98 receptions for 1,626 yards and 12 total touchdowns.
NFL Network’s Daniel Jeremiah ranked Pearsall as his No. 39 overall prospect and No. 7 wide receiver prospect after he stood out in practices before the 2024 Senior Bowl but didn’t play in the game.
Pearsall also put on a show at the NFL Scouting Combine, checking in at 6-foot-1 and 189 pounds before he ran the 40-yard dash in 4.41 seconds to go with an incredible 42-inch vertical leap.
“Pearsall is a loose, smooth wideout with outstanding hands and toughness,” Jeremiah wrote in 2024. “He is quick and he understands how to change gears as a route runner. He is fluid getting into and out of breaks. He has outstanding hands and makes some circus catches … he should have a starting role from Day 1 for his drafting team.”
Stribling Could Take Pearsall’s Spot in Lineup
While Evans is being brought in to be a clear-cut WR1, there’s a real chance Pearsall sees his presumed spot as WR2 stolen away by Stribling as a rookie.
Not that everyone is a fan of that happening — or a fan of the 49ers using such a high pick on the 6-foot-2, 207-pound former Ole Miss star.
ESPN’s Seth Walder, who singled out drafting Sibling as the move he disliked the most for the 49ers this offseason.
“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. As the 1st pick of the 2nd round, he’s getting relatively big money compared to years past — a 4-year, $13.3 million contract.
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. After he checked in at 6-foot-2 and 207 pounds at the NFL Scouting Combine, then ran a 4.36-second 40-yard dash … a lot of those previous concerns went out the window.
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