SANTA CLARA, Calif. — The San Francisco 49ers didn’t have a full complement of players for Thursday’s practice. But they did get an appearance from Ricky Pearsall, five days after the receiver was shot in the chest.
Wearing a gray T-shirt and his hat on backward, Pearsall casually strolled onto the field during individual drills and hung out to the side of the receiver group.
There were no visible signs he’d had a near-death experience — a bullet having passed through his right pectoral muscle and then out through his back — on Saturday afternoon. In fact, he flipped a football to himself the entire time and at one point made an underhand toss with his right hand to teammate Ronnie Bell.
Look who’s here — Ricky Pearsall strolls out for today’s practice. pic.twitter.com/M23L737vk3
— Matt Barrows (@mattbarrows) September 5, 2024
Perhaps the cameo shouldn’t be so surprising.
Pearsall, after all, was FaceTiming head coach Kyle Shanahan and his teammates from his hospital bed mere hours after the shooting and popped into the team facility on Monday. Shanahan said Pearsall, pumping with adrenaline, even told him on Saturday evening that he thought he could suit up for Monday’s opener against the New York Jets.
GO DEEPER
49ers’ Ricky Pearsall wanted to assure teammates he was OK — so he showed up at work
That won’t happen. He must miss at least the team’s first four games after being placed on the non-football injury/reserve list earlier this week, though team officials seem confident he’ll be able to play this season, perhaps as soon as Week 5. Shanahan said Pearsall is attending team meetings and will be able to start rehabbing in about a week.
“He wants to go a little while, a week or so, without trying to work up a sweat,” he said. “And then after that, he’ll start his rehab and progress to getting back.”
Shanahan said he and the 49ers also know that gunshot victims often deal with psychological issues, sometimes well after the event. He said he’s encouraging teammates to give Pearsall space.
“Everyone wants to show him they care,” Shanahan said. “And so what do you do? You go up to someone, you ask them how it happened and stuff. It’s a pretty traumatizing story, and I told the team, ‘We don’t want to make him relive that 80 times.’”
In the days after the shooting, trauma surgeons stressed how rare it was to be shot in the chest and have the bullet miss vital organs and blood supplies. They also figured that the bullet might have glanced off a rib, which would take some time to heal.
The bullet, however, managed to avoid even the receiver’s rib cage. Shanahan added another providential detail Thursday, saying the bullet hole is two inches below a pair of praying hands on Pearsall’s heavily tattooed chest.
“The whole story is kind of amazing,” he said.
Odds and ends
• The 49ers practiced Thursday without linebacker Dee Winters (ankle) and defensive end Yetur Gross-Matos (knee), increasing the chances that practice squad defensive lineman Sam Okuayinonu will be elevated for Monday’s game.
Meanwhile, running back Christian McCaffrey was limited with what Shanahan said were calf and Achilles concerns. He said the running back’s Achilles tendon issue wasn’t new but rather was related to the calf problem that kept McCaffrey out for most of training camp. McCaffrey lined up in his usual spot with the starting offense Thursday and did not seem hindered by the injury.
Christian McCaffrey still dealing with calf issue (but his behind-the-back ability is in midseason form). pic.twitter.com/SW1SKkdMUT
— Matt Barrows (@mattbarrows) September 5, 2024
Also limited were receiver Jauan Jennings (ankle), guard Aaron Banks (pinky), safety Talanoa Hufanga (knee) and running back Isaac Guerendo (groin).
Shanahan said Hufanga was “a possibility” to play against the Jets after tearing his ACL on Nov. 19 and only returning to practice last week. If he can’t play, the team probably would elevate Tracy Walker III from the practice squad on game day.
Pick up The Athletic 2024 Fantasy Football Guide to read expert evaluations & everything you need to know to win your fantasy football league.
Pick up The Athletic 2024 Fantasy Football Guide to read expert evaluations.
Buy
• Shanahan said neither Trent Williams nor Brandon Aiyuk would be limited in practice this week after both missed all the summer practices due to contract disputes. Aiyuk has been known to play all but one or two offensive snaps a game — rare for a receiver — though Shanahan wasn’t sure he could muster that degree of workload against the Jets.
“We’ll see how the week goes,” he said. “We’ve had one practice with him. He threw with Brock (Purdy) over the weekend. We’ll see how they are these three days (of practice) and then kind of evaluate it.”
GO DEEPER
On the eve of Week 1, the 49ers emerge from a summer of crises
• Shanahan said Brandon Allen would serve as Purdy’s backup against the Jets, making Joshua Dobbs the emergency third quarterback. Allen has served as the No. 2 passer — the first quarterback to get snaps after Purdy — since the spring. The only exception was the team’s second preseason game against the New Orleans Saints.
• The 49ers will have eight team captains this season, two more than they had a year ago: Nick Bosa, Kyle Juszczyk, George Kittle, McCaffrey, Purdy, Deebo Samuel Sr., Fred Warner and Williams.
Shanahan said eight was more than he’d prefer — the league allows nine — but the votes were so close among the top eight that he decided to go with that number.
“(Numbers) seven and eight were, like, one vote off,” he said. “The ninth guy was behind them. So it was really obvious who those eight were.”
(Photo of Ricky Pearsall at Aug. 18 preseason game: Brooke Sutton / Getty Images)
