SANTA CLARA — Like Christian McCaffery and Brock Purdy before him, Ricky Pearsall Jr. will play his first game with the 49ers Sunday against the Kansas City Chiefs.
Exactly how much Pearsall plays and his role will be determined by coach Kyle Shanahan, who saw what he needed to see after just three days of practice to determine the rookie first-round draft pick was ready to face the two-time defending Super Bowl champions at Levi’s Stadium.
Pearsall was officially elevated from the non-football injury list Saturday to the 53-man roster. Place kicker Matthew Wright (shoulder) was placed on injured reserve, with kicker Anders Carlson and safety Jaylen Mahoney promoted as weekly standard practice squad elevations.
Throwing Pearsall into the mix this fast is a leap of faith, although less of a leap than what he’s already survived.
Well before Pearsall was shot in a robbery attempt on Aug. 31 at Union Square, he was dealing with a shoulder subluxation, which amounts to a partial separation. His time in training camp was limited.
“Ricky’s been studying, he’s been getting a ton of stuff,” Shanahan said Friday. “I know he’ll get better as the year goes so we understand that with our expectations. Missing all the practice, missing some time, makes it harder schematically and getting out of the huddle. But he’s working his butt off to catch up. He’s gotten better each day. I know he’ll get better each week.”
McCaffery and Purdy can relate.
When the 49ers host the Chiefs, it will mark the two-year anniversary of the day McCaffery was acquired by trade from the Carolina Panthers. He arrived on a Friday, and managed to learn enough plays to see time for the 49ers’ Week 7 game against the Chiefs at Levi’s Stadium.
McCaffrey carried eight times for 38 yards and caught two passes for 24 more in a 44-23 loss to the Chiefs. In the 49ers’ last possession of that game, Purdy, a rookie seventh-round pick out of Iowa State, was inserted in place of Jimmy Garoppolo for his first playing time in an NFL game.
Purdy drove the 49ers deep into Chiefs territory and was 4 of 9 for 66 yards before throwing a pass into the end zone intended for Jauan Jennings that was intercepted by Juan Thornhill.
Now 33 starts into his professional career including playoff games, Purdy looks back on that day with some amusement.
“My mind was going pretty fast,” Purdy said. “So to see how I was feeling and everything in that moment a couple of years ago, all the way until now, it’s pretty funny.”
With Pearsall getting short of breath out of excitement after Monday’s low-key walkthrough practice, his emotions with family and friends present for his debut will be in the stratosphere.
Pearsall’s conversations with the media have been strictly informal, and the plan is for him to speak on the record for the first time after he plays in a game.
Jennings, the 49ers leading wide receiver with 25 receptions for 404 yards and three touchdowns, is out with a hip injury. He’s the only wide out with a red zone touchdown, a 4-yard flip from Purdy against the Rams. The starters are Deebo Samuel (20 receptions, 335 yards, one touchdown) and Brandon Aiyuk (23 receptions, 351 yards zero touchdowns).
Jennings’ production has come mostly as a third receiver, a role Pearsall could play against the Chiefs. Jennings has averaged 40 snaps per game, and it remains to be seen whether Shanahan will play his rookie that much.
“We’ll see how it unfolds,” Shanahan said.
When the 49ers and Chiefs met in Super Bowl LVIII in Las Vegas, Jennings was a potential MVP until Patrick Mahomes worked his magic, throwing a 21-yard touchdown pass to McCaffery and catching a 10-yard touchdown pass from Purdy.
Aiyuk was targeted six times by Purdy in the Super Bowl and caught three passes for 49 yards. Samuel was targeted 11 times, caught three passes for 33 yards and carried three times for eight yards.
The hope is Pearsall can be of some help either now or later as another potential red zone target with McCaffery remaining out indefinitely while recovering from Achilles tendonitis in both ankles. So far it’s been mostly tight end George Kittle in terms of production with all five of his touchdowns coming on plays inside the 20-yard line.
Pearsall has been fielding punt returns in practice and Shanahan didn’t rule out using him in that specialty. Given that he had just 15 punt returns for 153 yards in five years at Arizona State and Florida, that seems unlikely.
That would make Jacob Cowing an active receiver to go along with Samuel, Aiyuk and Pearsall, with Chris Conley and Ronnie Bell also available as a fifth receiver and special teams player.
About the only thing missing from the Pearsall drama is the story of how the 49ers gave him the news he’d be playing in his first game.
As practice progresses during the week, players know without asking whether they’ve got a role or not, and that was apparently the case with Pearsall.
“I wish I could give you a better story,” Shanahan said. “We kept repping him and when you’re repping guys like that, I think he understood he was going to be up. There was no magical moment.”
The 49ers are hoping for something along those lines on Sunday.
