Pearsall's surgery a ‘big blow’ to 49ers WR room
Chris Simms and Connor Rogers discuss Ricky Pearsall being set to have season-ending surgery and break down how the San Francisco 49ers can boost their group of receivers amid a headline-filled offseason.
Video Transcript
Let's get into the NFL news, and we have to start with the injury front because that's how the summer goes unfortunately.
The Niners, Ricky Pearsall, he's gonna miss the whole season with a knee injury.
It's crazy.
It Wild.
Crazy.
He will have follow-up surgery for a PCL injury that he suffered last season.
Yep.
We'll get into the Deebo Samuel of it all because he's now back with the Niners and s- said, "I kind of felt like I didn't even go anywhere, to be honest."
But Ricky Pearsall, just a weird timeline.
He was hurt all the time last year.
He's always been hurt.
This injury was from last year.
Yep, got shot in the chest- Right or the arm, whatever that's whole, yes.
Yeah he's had it all going on since he's been there.
But shows up this year and in a week it's like, "Well-" I, I don't This is one of my pet peeves in football.
I don't understand this.
I, I, I, I don't, and I have no inside info.
I know everyone's gonna be like, "Hey, wait, you talk to Kyle all the time."
This is something I have not got into the weeds as far as the specifics of the subject- Oh, we might not understand it and I actually haven't, I haven't, yeah.
Yeah.
I haven't talked to Kyle actually in a, in a few days, so I'm not privy to a update here.
W- all I can speak to is nothing's gone smooth with Ricky Pearsall.
He was a controversial draft pick to begin with.
Most people didn't think he deserved to be in the first round.
I think you and I thought, "Hey, he's definitely a top 50 player in the draft."
Yeah.
But even, you and I, we were like, "Oh, wow, he ended up in the first round?"
That was a surprise.
Yep.
There's no, there's no doubt about it.
And yes, it hasn't worked out on the football field, but I don't understand how you do get to this point and go, "Wait, you were working out all spring and summer, and it was just, it was totally good?"
Th- that, I don't understand that, but, but maybe it did get re-aggravated to a degree.
I, I, I, I don't know the specifics there.
But when I first saw the news of oh, you know, he's dealing with the PCL stuff, I went, "Oh, man, all right, well, he's gonna miss a few weeks.
It's not gonna be good."
Right.
And then when you heard about the gravity of the situation and that he's gonna have to go to surgery, and then all the sudden rumors started to come out that this could be season-ending, I mean, I was like, I was just wow.
Like, wow.
I mean, yeah, that's a big blow to their football team.
Their wide receiver position's, to me, dicey.
Oh, yeah.
You know?
It's old.
It's old.
It's a little beat up- Really old and crickety.
Yeah.
Okay?
Yeah.
Just to have a la- lack of a, a better phrase for it.
You know, so the 49ers, I just look at it and go, wait, okay, they got Mike Evans.
We know, legend, Hall of Famer, great, that's all.
But I mean, he missed games last year, a lot of them, and he missed a few the year before.
And he's managed having to m- always kind of manage a hamstring issue, and he's getting older.
So I don't know if, I don't, you know, that, that's dicey.
Would I be shocked, would you be shocked if Mike Evans missed six or seven games again this year?
I mean, you probably bake in at least three.
Three, at least three.
Yeah.
At least.
That's the floor.
Yep.
Exactly right.
Deebo Samuel, as I said to Florio today, I mean, no receiver's been through more car crashes in football th- through their career- No than Deebo Samuel.
So his health is dicey.
Christian Kirk we saw last year was in and out of the lineup for the Houston Texans, so you gotta worry about that.
And then even when he was in the lineup, he wasn't 100% all the time.
And so it's just fickle is what I guess I'm saying with where their wide receiver group is.
I mean, you're, you're Mike Evans one, "Oh, wait, it's week three.
I got a hamstring, ooh, it's a little tight.
Oh, wait, it's week four.
Mike Evans is still out.
Oh, Deebo Samuel got a wide receiver screen and thought he was, you know, Night Train Lane, and he lowered his shoulder.
Now his shoulder's banged up.
He's missing three weeks," right?
So all of that is just, you look at it and then you go, "Oh, man, then they're, it's gonna be on D'Andre Sveum-Stribling, their top of the second round draft pick."
That's a lot to ask.
That's a lot to ask.
Exactly right.
So- It s- screams to me a lot of DeMarcus Robinson this year.
I, I, I mean, he's gonna be a mainstay for sure, but I think what screams to me right now with more than anything is the 49ers are dicey.
I, I'm shocked at how much I hear right now, "49ers, Super Bowl team.
49ers, Super Bowl team."
I, I'm sorry.
I know, you know I'll be rooting for them.
You know he's my best buddy, but I do not look at the 49ers as a Super Bowl team.
Playoffs, sure.
Super Bowl, no.
They gotta prove that to me a little bit.
I mean, Christian McCaffrey is on the down slope.
I mean, there's no other way to say it.
He averaged 3.9 yards per carry last year.
He lost a step.
George Kittle is not gonna be 100% to start the year.
No.
Their offensive line has not been as dominant.
We talked about the wide receiver things.
Nick Bosa never stays healthy.
Mykel Williams, their first-round pick from two years ago, he's got he- he's had health issues.
And, and so I, I, you know, Dre Greenlaw back in the, in the fold, but he's been in and out of lineups the last few years.
Fred Warner's recovering from an injury.
So there's a part of me, and then you couple that with the Shanahan injury and all that and go, damn, they're dealing with a lot.
They're dealing with a lot out there in San Francisco, and this certainly does not make it any easier.
I know it's, we're sitting here talking about they're so old at wide receiver and will probably get hurt, so it sounds weird to ask this.
Yeah, I know.
But are they a team that- Yes at some point you're gonna have to call Keenan Allen or Diggs?
Oh, that, I, I, I wouldn't be sh- surprised by that.
I know it's not helping the youth movement, but- No, no.
But I could see the Diggs thing for sure.
So th- yes, maybe that.
Oh, and I think they're gonna be a team that's gonna be hot on everybody's roster at the end of training camp.
Right.
Right?
That's to me the w- the way they're gonna be.
Who's got a good three or four that might, because of their roster or whatever, and they gotta keep an extra lineman or an extra defensive lineman- That's a good question that one of these receivers is gonna be- Yeah expendable, that they're gonna go, "Oh, we don't really wanna cut him, but we gotta cut him," you know what I mean?
And so they're gonna be, you know, all systems go, radar on for that type of guy I would imagine as we get through training camp here.
Here's a total, and you could do a million of these.
Yeah.
But what if the Ravens are in a situation that Elijah Surratt and Jacoby Lane look awesome, and Devonta Walker takes a step, and you have Zay Flowers there.
But- You call about Rashod Bateman?
That, that's, that's what I'm saying.
Just throwing things out there.
That's, but like that.
Yes.
That's, that's what you're s- Right exactly right.
Where it's like, yeah, they drafted replacements, and they're gonna be ready enough.
They're gonna be on the trading block.
This happens at the end of rosters every year.
Always, always.
It's, it's, it's one of the keys to a successful f- football teams- Right is being able to You know, when I worked in New England a- and we would go through things in the front office there, we were on, like, list- I was in charge of teams of who do we think m- players might not make the cut there.
Right, like the 54th guy.
Right?
Who's the guys?
Yeah.
Right, let's put on, let's start making a few tapes of film because we don't think he's gonna make the team.
So like when, so Bill and Nic Rosario could, "Okay, teams are making cuts.
Oh, he did come loose.
We can have a tape ready for him to go, wait, which receiver did we want here?
Which, who is it gonna be?"
So th- that, that's, that's one of the keys to running a successful organizat- organization there.
So yeah, that, this is gonna be big for the 49ers.
Who do you think leads catches for this team this year?
Last year it was Christian McCaffrey.
Yeah.
He had 102.
Uh-huh.
Actually, nobody was even close, 'cause it was Kittle at 57 and Jauan Jennings at 55.
I mean, CMC has to b- almost be the runaway favorite.
I, I almost feel like I wanna say, when you said hi- said that, I was just like, "I, I feel like it's gonna be him again."
Yeah, 'cause- Especially with George Kittle, and like where, where that is.
You know, Christian Kirk and You know, Evans I don't look at as a guy that's gonna be 90 catches.
No.
Evans is more the guy that's gonna be hopefully 60 to 70 with 1,100 yards, and yeah, he makes a lot of big plays.
So that's where.
But no, I think I'm with you.
If you had to, if you had to If I had to put money on it right now, I think I would still go with Christian McCaffrey.
You think Deebo has anything left in the tank for this team?
I, I- Sneaky 72 catches last year.
Yeah, I know.
To a degree.
Yeah.
To do, to a degree.
Now, like, Shanahan knows how to get people open.
He knows how to make game plans to get people the ball.
It's not about like, that'll happen.
What, can he do something special after the catch anymore?
I think that's the thing that we're worried about- Right with Deebo.
Where like two years ago when the Niners were in the Super Bowl against the Chiefs, it was like, or three years ago, it was, the, the big question was Deebo can't run away from some of these guys- Right in man to man coverage.
So yeah, you can finagle a few catches for him here and there, okay?
But we've seen even in Washington where, yeah, okay, there's some good.
But he's not running by anybody deep downfield.
He was screens, slants over the middle, stuff like that, where he's dependable, he's tough as hell.
And yeah, he'll have a role in that.
But is it gonna be special?
I, I, I have a hard time believing that.
Yeah.
It's gonna be interesting.
This is an old group.
We know the coach can make it work, but you know, this is a team that it feels like they wanted to be They wanted to make a lot of moves at wide receiver going into this off-season- and we're already asking questions before a first preseason game was played.
Yeah, make it work is cool, but, y- you, make it work doesn't get you to the Super Bowl, right?
That- No, I know.
That, you know, that's what I mean.
Look at the, look at the NFL right now.
I No, no, exactly right.
The, the teams that are getting where they wanna go have big time play makers.
They- Look what New England just did.
Exactly.
They told you, "Our receivers weren't good enough to win the Super Bowl."
Exactly right.
We need a guy that can go 60 yards- Yeah and take pressure off the team every now and then.
Yeah.
And, and you saw, the, the other team in the AFC Championship, they said the same thing.
The Denver Broncos, they went, "You know what?
It's too hard to drive 12 plays every damn series.
We gotta get someone in.
Oh, Jalen Waddell?"
Yeah.
"He's available?
We can give him a reverse or a screen and he can go 60 yards in one play, and take the, s- make, take, make it all easy."
That's what I worry about with the 49ers, and that's where the Mike Evans thing is interesting, because he's a big play down the field type receiver.
That's not the MO of Brock Purdy.
No.
Right?
It doesn't match up.
And I g- I, we talked about it at the time.
A lot of people in the NFL reached out to me and going, "Man, Mike Evans and Brock Purdy?
That doesn't make sense."
No, I think you'll see Mike Evans over the middle a lot more than you have in most of his career.
But yeah, these are the kind of questions I certainly have about the 49ers.
I think another trickle effect of this too is, fair or not, it'll only put more of the spotlight on if they were right about Stribling.
Yes.
Because they took him earlier than the general public expected.
Totally.
And now, once again, fair or not, he needs to at least contribute something this year.
Well, yes.
And then on the heels of a guy with Ricky Pearsall, who has yet to really contribute something.
That's just gonna turn up the temperature on that whole- Right conversation there- Right to your point, no doubt about it, Connor.
