The San Francisco 49ers taking Ricky Pearsall with the 31st overall pick in the first round was viewed as one of the more surprising selections of the 2024 NFL Draft, and at least one NFL executive believes it may have been motivated by the success of a player in the Niners' own division.
ESPN's Jeremy Fowler collated information on all 32 teams following the draft through conversations with executives and scouts.
For the Niners, the addition of Florida wide receiver Pearsall with their first pick was regarded as "a bit of a reach" by an NFC evaluator, though it's one an AFC executive believes can be explained by the stratospheric rise of Los Angeles Rams star Puka Nacua.
"They wanted a route runner like the Rams have in Puka," that executive was quoted as saying by Fowler. "Probably see him in that same role."
Pearsall and Nacua do share similarities detailed route-runners who do an outstanding job adjusting to the flight of the football, and the 49ers would obviously be delighted to see their first-round pick enjoy the same kind of success Nacua did as a rookie.
Nacua's debut season saw him make 105 catches for 1,486 yards and six touchdowns.
Of course, Pearsall is entering a drastically different situation to what Nacua encountered when he came into the league last year as a fifth-round pick. With Cooper Kupp's injury and the Rams' lack of receiving options elsewhere on the field putting him in an excellent position to be the go-to target for Matthew Stafford right off the bat.
Pearsall, by contrast, will at best start his rookie year as the fifth option in the passing game, with Brandon Aiyuk, Deebo Samuel, George Kittle and Christian McCaffrey clearly ahead of him. There is a case to be made for Jauan Jennings also likely being ahead of him in the pecking order as well.
As such, Pearsall does not have a path to the same kind of production Nacua enjoyed as a rookie. However, if he can earn Brock Purdy's trust on the targets he does receive through his ability to separate and catch the ball consistently well, Pearsall could occupy the same standing in Purdy's mind as Nacua does in that of Matthew Stafford. Nacua has established himself as an ultra-reliable weapon who thrives attacking the short to intermediate areas over the middle of the field.
Per Pro Football Focus, 35 percent of Nacua's targets last season were to the short center area of the field, while 18.4 percent were to the intermediate center. For Pearsall in his final season with Florida, 14.9 percent were to the short center, with 16.1 going to the intermediate center and 10.4 to the deep center.
Pearsall won't have the same level of opportunity in his first year. For 2025 and beyond, though, it's easy to see him enjoying similar prominence and being deployed in a fashion akin to that of Nacua in a passing game that could well be without Samuel.
Kyle Shanahan and the coaches in his tree have long since borrowed from each other. Shanahan would never admit to doing so in this instance, but it would be no surprise if the Pearsall pick was at least partially motivated by him taking inspiration from the quick ascension Sean McVay was able to coax out of Nacua.
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