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49ers HC Kyle Shanahan Explains Why Ricky Pearsall had a Breakout Game

Finally, Ricky Pearsall showed why the 49ers drafted him in Round 1.

Grant Cohn

Dec 30, 2024; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Ricky Pearsall (14) catches a pass during the second quarter against the Detroit Lions at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Sergio Estrada-Imagn Images
Dec 30, 2024; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Ricky Pearsall (14) catches a pass during the second quarter against the Detroit Lions at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Sergio Estrada-Imagn Images / Sergio Estrada-Imagn Images
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Finally, Ricky Pearsall showed why the 49ers drafted him in Round 1.

The past six weeks, he caught just six passes. He was a complete afterthought in the offense. Then on Monday night against the Lions, he caught eight passes for 141 yards and a touchdown. Suddenly, he was the focal point of the 49ers' passing attack.

On Tuesday, 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan was asked what changed Pearsall that allowed him to produce.

“That's the hardest thing with wide receivers in this day and age, that everyone's judged off of their stats," Shanahan said. "They can tell a lot sometimes, but that's just when they get the ball or not, and that's not always based off of what they do. That's based off of circumstances that happen with the other 21 players on the field. Because there's a lot, you can play a really good game and have no numbers and there's nothing you did wrong about it, but people act like you didn't because you need to see those numbers from guys when they touch the ball. So, I was happy that he got more opportunities, that it worked out that way, and when he did he came through with them and showed the stuff that we like about him so that everyone could see it.”

TRANSLATION: Shanahan didn't call many passes for Pearsall the past couple months because Shanahan was obsessed with calling passes for Deebo Samuel, who probably won't be on the team this year. Finally, Shanahan gave Pearsall the targets that had been going to Samuel, and Pearsall produced. It's that simple. Pearsall should have been getting Samuel's targets all season.

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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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