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Why 49ers WR Ricky Pearsall Looks Good in OTAs

He's not small, he's not slow and he doesn't drop passes. He also seems confident and polished for a rookie. So it's no surprise that he played with the starters during 49ers OTAs while Brandon Aiyuk stayed home as he waits for a contract extension.

Grant Cohn

May 10, 2024; Santa Clara, CA, USA; San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Ricky Pearsall (14) runs drills during the 49ers rookie minicamp at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, CA. Mandatory Credit: Robert Kupbens-USA TODAY Sports
May 10, 2024; Santa Clara, CA, USA; San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Ricky Pearsall (14) runs drills during the 49ers rookie minicamp at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, CA. Mandatory Credit: Robert Kupbens-USA TODAY Sports / Robert Kupbens-USA TODAY Sports
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SANTA CLARA -- Ricky Pearsall doesn't look like a first-round pick, but he does look like a solid wide receiver.

He's not small, he's not slow and he doesn't drop passes. He also seems confident and polished for a rookie. So it's no surprise that he played with the starters during 49ers OTAs while Brandon Aiyuk stayed home as he waits for a contract extension.

And Pearsall played well in OTAs. He wasn't Aiyuk, who showed he was a special talent the minute he stepped on the practice field as a rookie, but Pearsall still performed well. He caught three passes on four targets during Tuesday's practice. That's good.

Pearsall is set up to succeed in OTAs for a couple reasons. One, Charvarius Ward is injured, so Pearsall doesn't have to face a Pro Bowl cornerback just yet (Ward should return in training camp). The 49ers didn't even make Pearsall match up against Deommodore Lenoir, their other starting corner. The best cornerback Pearsall faced all day was Ambry Thomas, who's not good. And Pearsall cooked him twice, as he should have. Eventually, Pearsall will have to prove he's a legitimate starting wide receiver by beating a legitimate starting corner.

Here's the second reason Pearsall is set up to succeed in OTAs: the cornerbacks aren't allowed to play press man-to-man coverage. It's against the rules. And beating press-man coverage is Pearsall's biggest weakness. So he won't get to work on that part of his game until training camp. In the meantime, he'll get free releases at the line of scrimmage and he'll make Ambry Thomas' life a living hell.

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Grant Cohn

GRANT COHN

Grant Cohn has covered the San Francisco 49ers daily since 2011. He spent the first nine years of his career with the Santa Rosa Press Democrat where he wrote the Inside the 49ers blog and covered famous coaches and athletes such as Jim Harbaugh, Colin Kaepernick and Patrick Willis. In 2012, Inside the 49ers won Sports Blog of the Year from the Peninsula Press Club. In 2020, Cohn joined FanNation and began writing All49ers. In addition, he created a YouTube channel which has become the go-to place on YouTube to consume 49ers content. Cohn's channel typically generates roughly 3.5 million viewers per month, while the 49ers' official YouTube channel generates roughly 1.5 million viewers per month. Cohn live streams almost every day and posts videos hourly during the football season. Cohn is committed to asking the questions that 49ers fans want answered, and providing the most honest and interactive coverage in the country. His loyalty is to the reader and the viewer, not the team or any player or coach. Cohn is a new-age multimedia journalist with an old-school mentality, because his father is Lowell Cohn, the legendary sports columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1979 to 1993. The two have a live podcast every Tuesday. Grant Cohn grew up in Oakland and studied English Literature at UCLA from 2006 to 2010. He currently lives in Oakland with his wife.

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