San Francisco is ending Ricky Pearsall's season with injured reserve, a move that delays his return again and puts the former first-round pick on a recovery path toward 2027
San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Ricky Pearsall is headed to injured reserve, ending his 2026 season before it ever got started. General manager John Lynch said Saturday that the team will make the move, and league rules mean Pearsall cannot return to the roster this year.
The setback stems from a lingering PCL injury that carried over from 2025. Pearsall is expected to have surgery to address the problem, with the goal of being ready for 2027. For a young player trying to establish himself in the NFL, the timing is especially costly: another full year of development and game reps is gone, and the 49ers will have to keep building their receiver rotation without him.
Pearsall's career has already been shaped by unusual circumstances. A first-round pick in 2024, his debut was delayed after he was shot during a robbery attempt on Labor Day weekend. He eventually got into 11 games as a rookie and made four starts. Last season, he started all nine games he played, which suggested he was beginning to carve out a bigger role before the knee issue stalled him again.
Through two seasons, Pearsall has 67 receptions for 928 yards and three touchdowns. Those are modest totals in isolation, but they also reflect how little uninterrupted time he has had to settle into a consistent NFL workload. For San Francisco, the question now is less about short-term production and more about whether Pearsall can finally get healthy enough to contribute in 2027.
The roster move comes as the 49ers try to stabilize their passing game around other pieces. On Thursday, they brought back Deebo Samuel after he spent 2025 in Washington. The team may still need additional help at receiver to deepen the depth chart and reduce pressure on veterans who are expected to carry a larger share of the offense.
From a roster-management standpoint, injured reserve is more than a medical designation. It forces teams to think in seasons, not weeks, because a player's recovery timeline, contract status and place on the depth chart all move together. In cases like Pearsall's, the football consequence is often as important as the injury itself: every missed month makes it harder to judge role, chemistry and durability, and it can alter how aggressively a team must shop for depth elsewhere.
