SANTA CLARA – NFL wide receivers, especially those notoriously drafted in the first round, might throw a hissy fit if they went three straight games without a catch.
Ricky Pearsall’s perspective is unique. Of course.
Three months ago, he survived a gunshot wound through his chest. Three games without a reception? His death-defying experience, from that Aug. 31 attempted robbery in San Francisco’s Union Square, casts things in a brighter light.
“It definitely does, because at the end of the day, there is more to life,” Pearsall said in an exclusive interview Wednesday in the 49ers’ locker room. “You know, having an experience like that, it’s just a little more of an awakening.”
That’s not to say Pearsall is content about a three-game drought that coincides with a three-game losing streak by the last-place 49ers (5-7). He is not discouraged going into Sunday’s home game against the Chicago Bears (4-8).
Five regular-season games left, and rather than succumb to statistical odds, it’s imperative they pump up Pearsall, knowing full well that 2022-23 No. 1 wideout Brandon Aiyuk’s knee may not be ready until the 2025 season opener.
“At the end of the day, I’m still a competitor and I still want to be the greatest version of myself,” Pearsall added. “When those (negative) things are happening, it does get frustrating at times. But we have to move on to the next game where there are going to be plenty of more opportunities for myself to go expand on.”
Only one pass came Pearsall’s way in Sunday’s 35-10 loss at Buffalo: he slipped on it thanks to conditions quite foreign to a Phoenix native.
“That was the first time I’ve ever seen snow fall from the sky,” Pearsall said. “I’d only seen leftover snow on the ground in Flagstaff, Arizona, about two hours from I lived. I’d never seen snow before. It definitely made the terrain pretty slippery.”
Pearsall changed his cleats, as did his teammates. It didn’t help. The ice kept stacking on their soles.
Pearsall broke open with five minutes left in Sunday’s third quarter, only to bite it and hit the snow with bad footing.
“There was nothing really with Ricky there,” Shanahan said of Sunday’s loss. “We had a chance to hit him downfield one time and he slipped, but that was nothing against him for that game.”
Since scoring his first career touchdown in the 49ers’ most recent win Nov. 10 at Tampa Bay, Pearsall has run 63 routes and drawn just three targets, according to ProFootballFocus.com. He’s played 66% of the offensive snaps (234-of-355) in those three losses as the 49ers got outscored 20-17 (vs. Seattle), 38-10 (at Green Bay), and, 35-10 (at snow-scaped Buffalo).
Shanahan is not frowning on Pearsall, the No. 31 overall pick. Shanahan revealed Wednesday that Pearsall “battled through a lot” in Green Bay, to which Pearsall (four cleanly fielded punts; no pass targets) shrugged off as “just a bunch of bumps and bruises, just normal football stuff, soreness. I got rolled up on a few plays. I was sore from that. But it wasn’t anything too crazy.”
After recovering and rehabilitating (physically and mentally) through the 49ers’ 3-3 start, Pearsall made a positive yet optimistic first impression. In his first three games, he caught 11-of-18 targets for 132 yards and a touchdown, the brunt of which came on second-down pass plays (six catches, 78 yards).
“It’s just kind of the life of a receiver, man,” Pearsall said. “Sometimes the ball doesn’t come your way. That’s just something I have to accept.
“I have to continue doing my job the best I can, continue to get open for Brock, and be a target for him whenever he does need me,” Pearsall added. “That’s what I’m focused on right now, not the stats.”
He also had a 39-yard run in their Oct. 27 win against Dallas, a play that originally was designed for Jacob Cowing, a fellow rookie who lined up in the wrong spot.
Pearsall never was envisioned as a 2024 savior. So much has gone wrong on offense, defense, and special teams — beyond injuries for the two-time defending NFC West champs.
“It’s been a rocky mountain, for real, to be honest with you, with injuries and all the other things we’ve had to go through this season,” Deebo Samuel, a sixth-year vet, said.
Pearsall debuted 50 days after getting shot, miraculously surviving the gunshot that passed through his right chest and left a centimeter-size scar near the back of his right armpit. Shoulder and hamstring injuries hindered his 49ers’ onboarding process in the two months prior to that.
All that seemed in the past as he neared his NFL rookie season. He’d played at Arizona State for three years, capitalized on the transfer portal to play the last two seasons at Florida, then embraced the 49ers’ selection of him at No. 31 overall in last spring’s draft.
That Arizona State stint overlapped with Aiyuk, who praised the 49ers for drafting Pearsall and now must root him on for an unlikely playoff push. (Sidebar: Samuel said Aiyuk appeared post-surgery Tuesday and was ‘Brandon. Happy. Chilling’ with an upbeat spirit.)
Pearsall said of Aiyuk: “He’s one of our most explosive receivers in our room and one of our best weapons on offense. It’s really tough. But we have to step up even bigger to take on that role he had for us.”
Roles change. Pearsall learned that Aug. 31 when an 18-year-old Tracy resident allegedly tried robbing Pearsall, only for them both to be shot.
Nearly three months later, Pearsall and his girlfriend gathered for Thanksgiving dinner with Dee Winters, Brayden Willis and their respective partners.
“They all came over and we did a Thanksgiving ourselves. It was really good,” Pearsall said. “We definitely prayed over our food, for sure.”