Eric Williams
NFC West Author
San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy understands there is no one-to-one substitute for the staff’s No. 1 receiver final season in Brandon Aiyuk.
The Arizona State product led the 49ers in receptions (75), receiving yards (1,342) and completed tied for first in receiving touchdowns (7) in 2023, incomes second-team All-Professional honors. San Francisco picked up the fifth-year possibility of Aiyuk’s rookie contract that may pay him $14.1 million in 2024.
Aiyuk’s illustration and the 49ers are at the moment in contract talks on a brand new deal that might pay him close to the highest of the receiver market, north of $25 million yearly. To this point, he isn’t reported to voluntary, organized staff actions (OTAs).
“It is extraordinarily vital,” Purdy informed reporters this week, when requested about San Francisco reaching a long-term take care of his favourite goal. “He’s a playmaker. Love throwing to him. Love B.A. as an individual. So yeah, it is undoubtedly vital.”
San Francisco drafted Aiyuk’s one-time faculty teammate at Arizona State in Ricky Pearsall with the staff’s No. 31 general decide partially as a hedge in case negotiations between the staff and the Professional Bowl receiver bitter, and the 49ers should commerce him elsewhere. Each Aiyuk and Deebo Samuel had been the topic of commerce rumors within the lead-up to the draft, however San Francisco common supervisor John Lynch and head coach Kyle Shanahan seem amenable to maintaining them on the roster for now.
Samuel, 28, nonetheless has two years remaining on a three-year, $71.55 million deal he signed in 2022. With receiver salaries skyrocketing, San Francisco should take a short-term and long-term view to how they construct the receiver room every season. In accordance with Spotrac, the 49ers lead the league with $48.6 million allotted to receivers for the 2024 season.
Together with Pearsall, the 49ers additionally drafted Jacob Cowing within the fourth spherical of this 12 months’s draft. At 6-foot-1 and 190 kilos with good pace and polished route working skill, Pearsall supplies San Francisco with a receiver with an identical ability set to Aiyuk.
San Francisco receivers coach Leonard Hankerson mentioned Pearsall is profiting from extra alternatives with the starters as a result of Aiyuk and Jauan Jennings are at the moment not attending OTAs. Jennings has not signed his one-year, $4.9 million restricted free-agent tender.
“It is good for Ricky as a result of he is getting a ton of reps,” Hankerson informed reporters this week. “However it’s additionally unhealthy for us as a result of that is two guys who know the way we do issues round right here, and he isn’t in a position to see these guys do it. That is added reps for an additional probability to be taught.”
Hankerson mentioned issues that stood out for Pearsall through the draft analysis course of have been his toughness, motion abilities and talent to persistently create separation. He mentioned that Pearsall and the opposite receivers have been within the constructing on daily basis from morning till night since they arrived two weeks in the past, placing within the work to rise up to hurry in a brand new offense.
“Everyone needs it to occur in a single day, however that is not going to be the case,” Hankerson mentioned. “It should take time to get a full understanding the way to get open towards this leverage towards this protection. … However as soon as it does click on, he is received the power to go on the market and make some performs for us.”
Pearsall received a head begin on making the soar to the NFL by understanding in the identical group with Miami Dolphins electrical receivers Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle earlier than the draft. Brandon White, founding father of the Receiver Manufacturing facility who led these exercises, mentioned Pearsall greater than held his personal.
“Anyone watching the tape can observe his route working skill and his slicing skill when he is proper subsequent to 2 of the perfect guys within the NFL,” White informed FOX Sports activities. “He is actually good. So far as his route working was involved, I did not see something that he missed on, popping out of his breaks. I did not see something that he did not perceive.
“He is very sudden. He is very sharp and it reveals. I am not saying something that you just guys did not see proper subsequent to Tyreek Hill and Waddle. I am very excessive on Ricky out of all the blokes I work with.”
White mentioned that Pearsall has been working with him since transferring from Arizona State to Florida after his junior season, and he helped him within the lead-up to the draft.
White performed receiver for Wisconsin in faculty and has been coaching receivers for the final seven years based mostly in his house state of Florida. White usually works with among the high receivers within the NFL, together with Stefon Diggs, Justin Jefferson, J’Marr Chase, Calvin Ridley, Hill, Watkins and Pearsall’s new teammate in San Francisco in Samuel.
“He is (Pearsall) really a really, very mature younger man,” White mentioned. “There is a bunch of issues I can say about his sport, however I believe his psychological strategy and his mindset to only attempt to elevate himself — he has an actual focus and starvation when he is on the market. He does not wish to mess up a rep. He had a bunch of excellent questions and wished suggestions on how it may pertain to the sport. So, I similar to his mentality.
“He shocked me. Every thing about Pearsall impressed me. We see guys are available on a regular basis, and we work with quite a lot of guys. It isn’t only one factor, it is a number of totally different ranges of issues that jumped out. My general opinion of the younger man is I believe he is the actual deal.”
The 49ers hope further reps mixed with Pearsall’s expertise as a route runner and scholar of the sport results in manufacturing in his rookie season. Pearsall was one of many highest athletic testers among the many receiver prospects on this 12 months’s draft.
In a 12 months when the 49ers are chasing a Tremendous Bowl, it is sensible to attempt to hold Aiyuk round past this season for San Francisco, regardless of the percolating rumors that the staff is perhaps keen to maneuver each Aiyuk and Samuel.
Nevertheless, the event of Pearsall and different younger receivers on San Francisco’s roster supplies a backup plan, ought to both show too pricey now, or sooner or later.
Eric D. Williams has reported on the NFL for greater than a decade, masking the Los Angeles Rams for Sports activities Illustrated, the Los Angeles Chargers for ESPN and the Seattle Seahawks for the Tacoma Information Tribune. Comply with him on Twitter at @eric_d_williams.
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