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The 49ers Place Ricky Pearsall on the Non-Football Injury List

This is extremely puzzling.

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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This is extremely puzzling.

The 49ers have placed rookie first-round pick Ricky Pearsall on the Non-Football Injury List for undisclosed reasons. It's possible he has a nagging injury from college which is forcing the 49ers to shut him down, but he participated in OTAs and minicamp just a few weeks ago. To be fair, he wore a blue non-contact jersey, but I assumed that was because he hadn't signed his contract yet. He looked healthy and he practiced at full speed.

It's possible that Pearsall injured himself recently while training for the upcoming season. If that's the case, it's possible the injury is minor and he'll be off the NFI list in a few weeks. But if he's not off it by the time the 49ers cut their roster down to 53 players, he'll have to miss at least the first four weeks of the season.

It's interesting that this news comes out the same day that Brandon Aiyuk reportedly requested a trade. The 49ers have been going through a tense negotiation with Aiyuk and have been unwilling to meet his demands. They feel they have all the leverage, which is why they drafted Pearsall in the first place. They want an insurance plan in case Aiyuk decides to sit out part of the season.

Now the insurance plan is injured, which means Aiyuk has more leverage than before. No wonder he requested a trade today. What better time to request one? If Pearsall misses all of training camp, the 49ers might have no choice but to give Aiyuk what he wants.

Stay tuned.

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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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