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The 49ers Expect Ricky Pearsall to Resume Practicing This Week

In retrospect, the 49ers should have brought Pearsall in for a visit before they took him in Round 1 of the draft.

Grant Cohn

May 10, 2024; Santa Clara, CA, USA; San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Ricky Pearsall (14) smiles 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) smiles 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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The 49ers haven't shut down Ricky Pearsall for the season just yet.

Pearsall has missed the past three weeks with a subluxed shoulder he suffered while blocking in practice on Aug. 6. This was a reaggravation of a shoulder injury he suffered during OTAs and during his junior year of college, so it's a recurring issue. And it's possible he needs surgery. And yet, the 49ers expect him to practice this week. Business as usual.

It's possible that three weeks of rest has fully healed Pearsall's shoulder and it won't bother him anymore. But he had a month and a half to rest it after reaggravating it during OTAs and still injured it in camp. So rest might not be enough.

Perhaps the 49ers feel like they can shut down Pearsall's season at any time and make him have surgery, so why do it now? Give him one more chance to play through the injury so he can potentially get on the field during his rookie season and then let him get surgery in the offseason if he truly needs it. That seems like a reasonable plan.

Unfortunately for Pearsall and the 49ers, it seems likely that he'll reaggravate his shoulder again. I'm no doctor, but if he partially dislocated his shoulder while blocking, I'm thinking it could pop out of place again randomly or when he gets tackled.

In retrospect, the 49ers should have brought Pearsall in for a visit before they took him in Round 1 of the draft. Because if they met with him, they probably would have learned about his shoulder problem and drafted someone else.

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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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