After coming within one drive of winning Super Bowl LVIII,
there was no shortage of curiosity regarding what San Francisco 49ers general
manager John Lynch would do with the next-to-last selection in Round 1.

That curiosity turned to surprise when Lynch made Florida wide receiver Ricky Pearsall the sixth wide receiver off the board at No. 31. ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler went so far as to call the Pearsall pick the most head-scratching selection of the entire draft.

“I’m not about to doubt coach Kyle Shanahan’s eye for offensive skill players, and I love Pearsall as a player,” Fowler said. “But his place as WR6 in this draft was unexpected. Most teams I spoke to pegged him as a Day 2 pick. Considering the 49ers still have Deebo Samuel and Brandon Aiyuk on the roster, bolstering the offensive or defensive line seemed like a sensible play.”

However, while speaking
to reporters, Shanahan said that the Niners had plenty of reasons to make
Pearsall their first pick in 2024.

“He just plays the position real well,” said Shanahan. I mean, whether he was outside, inside, either receiver, all three of the positions, he can separate down the field, he can separate underneath. He’s got really good hands, extremely smart, very well developed. You can tell he is, I guess I’d call it a gym rat or something because you can just see he’s worked on his routes, put in a lot of hours because you can see it on tape and there’s really nothing he can’t do. He can fit in whatever role based off the other guys.”

Pearsall’s arrival has as much to do with the other wideouts in San Francisco as Pearsall himself. Brandon Aiyuk is a free agent after the upcoming season. Deebo Samuel is signed through 2025, but his cap hit is north of $24 million each of the next two years.