SANTA CLARA, Calif. – Ricky Pearsall’s motto this offseason: Wherever Brock Purdy goes, I’ll be there, too.
The San Francisco 49ers’ rookie receiver, who came on strong at season’s end, noted that the two frequent the same spots.
Both grew up outside of Phoenix. In fact, their respective high schools are less than 10 miles apart as the crow flies.
Purdy likes to spend part of his offseason with his throwing coach in the Jacksonville, Fla. area. It just so happens that Pearsall, who played at the University of Florida, plans to do some speed training in the vicinity in the coming months
Finally, both said they’ll spend the bulk of the offseason at the team facility in Santa Clara. Even there, their lockers are only a few feet apart.
“That’s why I feel like it’s already written, you know?,” Pearsall said of the burgeoning magic between passer and receiver. “Sometimes we’ll just talk after practice. I think that’s just as beneficial as me running a route. Because now I get to see it through the quarterback’s lens.”
The duo plans to make up for lost time over the coming months.
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Their 2024 connection was fuzzy at first due to the fact that Pearsall missed all but a handful of training camp practices with hamstring and shoulder injuries, then had to sit out the first six games after being shot in the chest on Aug. 31.
The first-round pick, so outgoing and eager to please, already was becoming a favorite of teammates when the incident occurred. The shooting never darkened or otherwise changed his attitude, and the way he bounced back only cemented his status in the locker room.
“Everyone loves him on our team,” Purdy said Monday. “He’s a first-round draft pick. But more than anything it’s the way he carries himself. He’s got a good head on his shoulders. We all want the best for him and you can feel that from everybody else. Everybody looks out for Ricky.”
The 49ers began easing Pearsall into the mix in Week 7. He had three catches in that game and scored his first touchdown – a 46-yard catch-and-run score — two games later in Tampa, Fla.
Best shot of the day? It might have come from the pylon cam on Ricky Pearsall’s first-ever NFL touchdown… pic.twitter.com/WQyzEI1Rqg
— Matt Barrows (@mattbarrows) November 11, 2024
But he also went through a three-game stretch in which he played 105 offensive snaps but caught no passes. The Purdy-to-Pearsall connection didn’t start to truly heat up until Purdy’s final two outings in Weeks 16 and 17, games in which Pearsall hauled in 12 of 14 targets for 178 yards and a touchdown. He also caught a touchdown pass from Joshua Dobbs in the season finale.
“There’s been so many moments throughout the year where he’s run a route and I’ve thrown a ball and it’s just slightly off,” Purdy said. “And we know that, hey, once we get a real offseason together and we can talk about the basics, the fundamentals, the timing of concepts and everything and just get a bunch of reps together, dude, it’ll get way better.”
The two already have mapped out their offseason. Purdy said that one of the things he most likes about Pearsall is how eager he is to learn the minutia of a play. The quarterback — also a details guy — said he’s more than happy to share.
“He’s a guy who talks about routes and his cuts,” Purdy said. “And when he’s talking about it, he’s so excited about it. Which for me, as a quarterback, I’m like, ‘Dude, I love that.’ It’s, ‘I’ll take you and ride with you every day of the week because I know you’re going to give everything you’ve got.’ We’re going to build off that. He’s got the drive and he’s got the ‘it’ factor.”
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Pearsall said he plans to work on every facet of receiving in the offseason. He felt his biggest shortcoming as a rookie was that he didn’t have a deep understanding of the playbook. He said he doesn’t merely want to know where to go on a particular play. He wants to know exactly what the quarterback is thinking, something he hopes to get in an offseason with Purdy.
”It always starts there — that’s the way you’re going to move the fastest,” he said. “It doesn’t matter how much route running or footwork drills you do, if you don’t know the playbook — the ins and outs of it — you’re not going to play fast.”
(Photo: Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images)
