The San Francisco 49ers had a tumultuous 2024 season. Injuries to Christian McCaffrey, Ricky Pearsall, and Brandon Aiyuk, amongst others, led to an up and down offense that struggled to produce consistently all season.
From a fantasy football perspective, all of these injuries made it difficult to trust anyone on the team. Jajuan Jennings eventually emerged, but he’s been facing his own injury issues (calf) this offseason.
There are very few fantasy options in this offense that owners can trust without having to use a high pick.
However, there is one under the radar option that owners could look to target in the mid to late rounds. If he hits, he could very well be a potential league winner.
Wide Receiver Ricky Pearsall
As mentioned above, Ricky Pearsall’s 2024 season was impacted by injury. Specifically, he was shot in the chest in an attempted robbery on August 31st.
Aside from the mental trauma involved in such an incident, the physical recovery prevented him from making his team debut until Week 7 against the Kansas City Chiefs. In that game, he recorded 3 receptions for 21 yards.
While his debut had somewhat underwhelming on field results, he picked up his production towards the end of the year.
In Week 17 against the Detroit Lions, he recorded 8 receptions for 147 yards and a touchdown, while adding 6 receptions for 69 yards and another touchdown the next week against the Arizona Cardinals.
These numbers were not only encouraging for the 49ers; they portend real value in fantasy football for the 2025 season.
With Aiyuk still recovering from his 2024 ACL injury, Jennings nursing a calf issue, questions remaining about McCaffrey’s durability, and the trade of Deebo Samuels to the Washington Commanders, opportunity abounds for Pearsall in an offense that he produced in to close last season.
The 49ers will always be, at their core, a run-first offense under Kyle Shanahan. They’ve invested quite a bit in McCaffrey and recently traded for Brian Robinson.
However, it’s clear that they value being able to air it out when necessary as well. They wouldn’t have handed out large contracts to Aiyuk, George Kittle, and Brock Purdy, as well as investing a first round pick in Pearsall, if they didn’t.
And with that clear desire to have a strong passing game to complement their run-first approach, and with the multitude of injuries to their pass catching group, there’s a vacuum in the offense that needs to be filled.
Who better to fill that need than Ricky Pearsall, the recent first round pick that closed his rookie season in dynamic fashion?