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Will 49ers WR Ricky Pearsall Eventually Need Shoulder Surgery?

Pearsall's latest shoulder subluxation occurred in practice when he was blocking. He hasn't even been tackled yet.

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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The 49ers don't want you to think that Ricky Pearsall's shoulder subluxation is a serious injury.

That's why Pearsall practiced Monday, which was less than three weeks after he reaggravated his subluxed shoulder for the second time this offseason. He originally suffered the injury his junior year of college and apparently it never quite healed. Maybe that's because he never rested it enough. Or maybe that's because he needs surgery.

Pearsall's latest shoulder subluxation occurred in practice when he was blocking. He hasn't even been tackled yet. So it seems likely that his shoulder will partially dislocate again at some point, either randomly or by force. And if and when the next subluxation happens, the 49ers probably will have no choice but to shut down Pearsall for the season.

Head coach Kyle Shanahan recently characterized Pearsall's shoulder as "tender," which is one way to downplay the severity of the injury. It seems Shanahan expects Pearsall to play through the injury no matter how many times his shoulder partially pops out of socket. As if the issue is Pearsall's pain tolerance.

I'm guessing the 49ers' plan is for Pearsall to have shoulder surgery next offseason if he truly needs it. But if he'll have to get it surgically repaired eventually, why not do it now? He already missed almost all of training camp. He's at the bottom of the depth chart. They don't need him to contribute this season considering fellow rookie wide receiver Jacob Cowing has emerged as a weapon.

Fix Pearsall's shoulder now before it gets worse.

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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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