Welcome to the big time, Ricky Pearsall! (Photo via Florida Gators)
For the San Francisco 49ers, receivers Brandon Aiyuk and Deebo Samuel were being tossed out to the NFL waters as trade bait as rumors of John Lynch’s team moving up in the 2024 NFL Draft went from whispers to murmurs. Instead of decreasing their number of playmaking receivers, the defending NFC champions adjusted that number upward.
San Francisco 49ers fans, meet Ricky Pearsall, formerly of the Arizona State Sun Devils and the Florida Gators. Lynch saw him available with the 31st pick in the NFL Draft, and didn’t hesitate. He pulled the trigger, and added the dynamic wide receiver to the 49ers’ roster.
The move comes as a bit of a surprise– Pearsall had been mocked as a second or third round selection– but at the same time, it shouldn’t. Ricky Pearsall has outperformed expectations everywhere he’s been so far. He simply continued doing that by earning a first-round selection.
Originally a three-star prospect from Tempe, AZ, Pearsall played three years at Arizona State before transferring to Florida and becoming a star, first with the help of Anthony Richardson– eventually a top-five NFL Draft pick himself– and then Graham Mertz, who should be selected somewhere in the first few rounds of next year’s Draft. Only because Mertz was injured in Florida’s second-to-last game of 2023 did Pearsall not eclipse the 1000-yard mark this past season– he would have been the first Gator to do so since Taylor Jacobs more than two decades ago.
But Pearsall’s 2023 stats, for as good as they are, are a bit deflated because of horrendous offensive line play last season. Even at 31, where some analysts would say the 49ers reached to get him, Ricky Pearsall might be the sleeper of the 2024 NFL Draft.
Pearsall isn’t a speed demon who can take the top off the defense, or a Kadarius Toney type of human joystick, but he’s a consistent route-runner with hard, clean cuts, great hands– which are so great that he doesn’t even need to use both of them— and just the general ball skills needed to make plays at the highest level. He’s also not afraid to initiate contact, either with defenders or the football, and has developed a knack for metaphorically smashing the “aggressive catch” button that gamers love to use in Madden. So don’t be fooled by his lack of eye-popping measurables like his peers Xavier Worthy or Malik Nabers; Ricky Pearsall has used his smarts, ultra-quick feet and duct-tape fingers to make plays against bigger and faster defenders throughout his football career.
And really, if football is ever meant to be a life lesson, Ricky Pearsall embodies it. Pearsall is an example of what happens when you outwork your competition not just when you feel like it, but on the days you don’t. Pearsall is an example of what happens when you go back to school to finish what you started, and give the program that believed in you every ounce of energy you have to give. Pearsall is an example of why the biggest, the strongest, and the fastest doesn’t automatically translate into the best.
And now, despite being a three-star prospect, despite never having the elite physical skills like some of his colleagues, despite being dismissed as a second or even a third round pick, Ricky Pearsall will go down in history as a first round NFL Draft pick– the 58th in the Florida Gators’ illustrious history.
Welcome to the club, Ricky. And welcome to the NFL. Now it’s time for the final– and yet longest– piece of your journey yet. Go make millions.
