Latest / Guy Football Focus with Guy Haberman / REACTION: Ricky Pearsall hurt, Why 49ers Might Turn To Deebo

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REACTION: Ricky Pearsall hurt, Why 49ers Might Turn To Deebo · Guy Football Focus with Guy Haberman

• 0:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: What's up guys?
• 0:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: Guy here from Levi Stadium.
• 0:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: It is Wednesday.
• 0:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: Just got done with Niner's practice.
• 0:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: The news has been out for a few hours now since practice started.
• 0:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: No Ricky Pierce saw swelling in his knee.
• 0:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: That PCL knee.
• 0:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: All options on the table is the way the Niner's phrased it.
• 0:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: So that sounds like it has the possibility to be long term.
• 0:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: That sounds like more than just, you know, with day off, we'll see if the swelling goes down.
• 0:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: Maybe that'll be what happens.
• 0:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: But it sounds pretty ominous from a Ricky availability standpoint.
• 0:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: Remember, he hurt the knee in the Jags game, re-aggravated it, lingered the practices we've seen within me at a pad on it.
• 0:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: So I think it puts his long-term, long-long-term future.
• 0:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: In question with the 49ers, it was already in question.
• 0:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: I said during the off-season, during the off-off season, that I thought,
• 0:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: the way it was trending was that his fifth year option wasn't getting picked up next year.
• 0:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: That number is, you know, in the high teens, maybe 15, 16, 17, 18 million dollars projecting what the...
• 1:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: what that uh... fifth year option would be for him so obviously that's in jeopardy but as it relates right now it's it's uh... devastating devastating for him devastating for their death now look i said a couple days ago that i thought day john strimly could take his his place rickie's place as the number two receiver behind my caverns on this team and it was twofold it was one i thought strimling the good
• 1:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: And it was that I thought Ricky wasn't moving with the same sort of urgency that he had moved with in camp last year when he had a really productive camp and it led to a really productive start of the year when John Jennings, you know, no IU, and then Jennings was out last year with the contract.
• 1:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: and the injury, whatever, Ricky stepped up.
• 1:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I thought through the couple of practices that we'd seen this year, he hadn't been moving with that same urgency on the field.
• 1:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: Well, maybe now we know why, because the knee was bothering.
• 1:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, he had a pad on the thing.
• 1:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: But that's for when he hits the ground, if it's going to swell, and it's not fully recovered.
• 2:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: The feeling was the PCL would heal with rest.
• 2:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: That was,
• 2:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: with the off season was four and now he's back and it's not a new injury, it's not something injured in practice, it's related.
• 2:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: So that's going to put even more pressure on Dacia on dribbling and it really kills kills the 49er receiver depth.
• 2:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: You know, I'm optimistic about Jordan Watkins.
• 2:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: I thought he was a guy that had a good camp last year, had a good preseason start to the game.
• 2:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: big catch against Denver that first preseason game before he heard his ankle, high ankle spring and never was able to work his way back in.
• 2:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: I think he's looked good.
• 2:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: I think he's looked comfortable.
• 2:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: I think he's got a shot, but really you got Mike Evans.
• 2:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: Now, Christian Kirk's out.
• 2:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: You got Mike Evans.
• 2:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: You got dribbling.
• 2:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: You got to Marcus Robinson.
• 2:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: Those are your guys with NFL with real game experience, Christian Kirk at some point maybe, but with Kirk and with Pierce all out, I think they're going to have to look outside.
• 2:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: And to me, that means Debo.
• 2:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's the obvious guy that's available.
• 2:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: If you had one guy down or maybe if Ricky was about to come back, this isn't a decision you make today.
• 3:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: But you know, you have to wonder, did they
• 3:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: And one point you go, well, God, they're lucky they got struggling.
• 3:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: I was like, really mean a tough spot or did they draft struggling because they weren't sure if Rookie was going to be good to go knowing that he, you know, he didn't have a surgery like right after the year with a clear timeline that it was a rest in Hill situation.
• 3:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know, but I think Stripling is a good.
• 3:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: I thought he looked good again today.
• 3:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: You know, the thing with Watkins, you'd love for him to be able to catch puns, so you don't need to carry a special list.
• 3:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: But they did it last year with Skymore, but Sky had a hundred, and I said, did Josh do about the AP today.
• 3:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: Well, I don't know, it's Sky really plays like a hundred and ten offensive snaps.
• 3:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: Last year, you can Jacob Cowling play hundred and ten offensive snaps.
• 3:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: He's your best
• 3:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: He's your most reliable punt returner.
• 3:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: It appears so far and then walk into this kind of the next guy.
• 3:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: And there's nobody after that that you would put on a 46-man roster.
• 4:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: I don't think to catch, I mean, maybe in a pinch.
• 4:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: But so, you know, they're in a tough spot.
• 4:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: And part of the reason they're in a tough spot.
• 4:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's not just because right now, fully healthy.
• 4:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: They don't have receivers right now.
• 4:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: Fully-healthy, like it's clear who they're top four guys are.
• 4:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: are not fully healthy, but just what they have right now.
• 4:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: But is my Kevin's plan 16, 17 games this year?
• 4:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: So that's where I think the Ricky thing, really.
• 4:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: What whether Ricky was going to be the number two receiver in terms of target volume behind dribbling or behind Evans or whether he'd be number three is dribbling with takes, at least you had like real game experience depth with the Ricky.
• 4:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: And maybe it best he'd be your number two guy.
• 4:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: I don't give him day he could be.
• 4:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: He could be a quick strike guy.
• 4:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: So, it's significant, I mean it's really significant, it's a short-term issue, it's potentially a long-term issue, whether it's a long-term issue for the season we'll see, but at this point, if it's bothering him two days in the camp.
• 4:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: then you just had a whole offseason arrest.
• 4:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: How much rest can you really give?
• 5:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so then you'd turn the question but come to, is there going to need surgery?
• 5:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: And if that's the case, then he's not going to be around for however long.
• 5:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: So that's not good for this year.
• 5:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's not good for 20 to 27, which he's under contract four.
• 5:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: And then to me, it feels like it takes 20 to 28 off of the table, completely.
• 5:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: at least in terms of that fifth-year option.
• 5:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: So, you know, I think a lot of people are, you know, please, Debo, but, you know, the good thing is, you've got Evans who can stretch it.
• 5:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: I think Stribling will be able to stretch it.
• 5:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so, what do you need?
• 5:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: What are you looking for, really?
• 5:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: Three to five kind of targeted design touches.
• 5:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: Debo Samuel last year was fifth in the NFL in YAC per catch.
• 5:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: six and a half yards a yak per catch.
• 5:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: 53 qualified receivers.
• 5:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: Dibo was fifth now.
• 5:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: The numbers a little misleading because he was 51 out of 53 receivers in average depth of target.
• 6:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: 40% of his targets were outer behind the line of skimage.
• 6:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: So it's very clear how Washington used him.
• 6:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: But
• 6:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: What do you really need right now?
• 6:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: When you look at this 49er receiver room you guys have been on the field guys who knows the offense guys You can trust you know D-Bo
• 6:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: from a run game perspective feels like that's pretty much gone.
• 6:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: That's not really what he's there for.
• 6:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: Which is fine, it's not what you need.
• 6:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: K-Long Black was the other one, Jordan James has an injury.
• 6:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: But I feel like K-Long Black might have been passing him anyway.
• 6:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: D-Bows explosive plays have gone down.
• 6:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: D-Bows efficiency in the run game has gone down.
• 6:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: We're several years removed now from D-Bows' best year.
• 6:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: But,
• 6:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: what do we talk about a couple of days ago with dribbling and pierce all, pierce all had four targets inside the 20 last year, one catch in the red zone, not inside the tan, no targets on the goal line, but he played like three quarters of the snaps when he was the games he played, he played three quarters of the red zone snaps.
• 7:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: So it's very ineffective in the red zone.
• 7:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: One thing with Debo, and then I just got a lot better in the red zone last year, in large part because Christian was back, but also because John Jennings, okay, so what do we talk about?
• 7:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: Evans, Phil, some of that, Christian does it.
• 7:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: Um, scribbling maybe, but Debo was productive in the red zone last year.
• 7:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: He had 17 red zone touches, five touchdowns in the red zone.
• 7:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: So he's still hard to tackle in tight spaces.
• 7:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: Um, he was, he was, he was,
• 7:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: useful on third down, about half of his third down catches went for a first down.
• 7:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: You know, the Niners last year, I think you'd love to be more explosive, they were not an explosive, short yardage team, meaning second and short, they didn't take big shots, they just tried to convert, conversely, the Rams took shots.
• 7:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: You know, hopefully my Kevin's hope and dribbling help you open that up.
• 7:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: I think Ricky would help that too, unfortunately.
• 7:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: But if you're just looking for conversions, you know, I think a lot of people have a bad taste
• 8:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: season or 2024 season, understandably, I think, you know, him and Christian, and Evans, and again, you're not looking for a number one or even a number two receiver, but you're looking for just a few touches a game that you can trust.
• 8:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: you know, I would not be shocked.
• 8:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: I would not be, unless it's going to be zagent, the long awaited arrival to the 40 manners, zagions.
• 8:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: But, you know, I'm not holding my breath on that.
• 8:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: So, still TBD on Ricky, seems ominous, but maybe he'll be back, you know, soon, knee swelling, not great, especially when it was a lingering issue from last year.
• 8:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: And to me, the, you know, the next guy seems that it seems like there's a clear
• 8:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: the return.
• 8:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: But we'll see.
• 8:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: All right, that's it for that.
• 8:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: I got to give Grant his room.
• 8:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: Got to give Grant his cell back here.
• 9:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I'll talk to you all soon later.