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

Pearsall was shot in the chest while shopping in San Francisco's Union Square on Friday afternoon.

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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Rookie wide receiver Ricky Pearsall will miss at least the first four games of the upcoming season.

That's because the 49ers placed him on the Reserve/Non-Football Injury List on Monday. In a corresponding move, the 49ers signed offensive tackle Brandon Parker.

Pearsall was shot in the chest while shopping in San Francisco's Union Square on Friday afternoon. The bullet went through and through but did not hit any vital organs, and he was released from the hospital the next day. That's good news. Still, it's unclear when Pearsall will be physically fit to return to football.

In addition, it's unclear when he will be mentally fit to return to football. He may need counseling after his near-death experience. In that sense, his mental health could be a bigger concern than his physical health. Is he having flashbacks and/or nightmares after coming face-to-face with an armed assailant? The 49ers should find him a professional he can talk to.

Finally, it's interesting that the 49ers signed an offensive tackle to fill Pearsall's roster spot. That's because we're seven days away from the regular season and starting left tackle Trent Williams is still holding out for more money. If the 49ers don't come to an agreement with him soon, they'll have to play their season opener without him. So they're preparing for that potential outcome, although the most likely outcome still seems to be Williams signing a new deal in the next few days.

If the 49ers truly value Brock Purdy, they won't let him play the Jets without Trent Williams.

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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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