Just five days remained for the regular season, one shot, and all hopes lay on the ground. Kyle Shanahan’s Niners picked Ricky Pearsall this year to join their wide receiver clan. But before the Florida State alum could debut, life threw a big curveball at him. While headed to an autograph signing event on September 1 last year, Pearsall was just a few days away from his dream of playing in the biggest football league in America. But then a teenager shot the 24-year-old in the chest in an alleged attempted armed robbery near San Francisco’s Union Square. And with that, the dream of a perfect rookie season was gone. 

When everybody thought he wouldn’t be playing this season, Ricky Pearsall rose like a phoenix from the ashes. Fortunately, the bullet missed his vital organs, and he was released from the hospital on the following day. But overcoming the trauma, he showed up in 49ers practice, just 4 days after it. And after eight weeks, Pearsall stepped onto the gridiron against the Chiefs in week 7. 

With 1:32 left on the clock before the half of the matchup, the crowd at Levi’s Stadium shouted out loud for Pearsall as he hauled in a six-yard pass from quarterback Brock Purdy. The roar was such that it could be heard behind closed press box windows, a fitting tribute to the remarkable comeback. The Florida alum eventually ended the outing with 3 catches for 21 yards in the Niners’ 28–18 loss to the Chiefs.

“After that catch, my teammates were dabbing me up, saying that they are happy for me, proud of me. That’s when it all hit. The crowd got a little loud right there. I just took the opportunity to be appreciative of everything that led up to that and all the blessings that came with it,” Ricky had said. Three weeks after this, in the 49ers’ week 10 match-up against Tampa, he scored the first touchdown of his NFL career. As remarkable as this might sound, the 49ers’ head coach Kyle Shanahan did not expect any of this coming. So, as the season ends, he has all the praise for his rookie WR.

Talking to the media during an end-of-season press conference, the Niners’ head coach revealed, “I’ve never had a rookie player miss all of OTAs and training camp and have much of a successful rookie year. It’s tough to do that. For him to do that and then get into Week One, which I knew he would be way behind because of that situation and then get a gunshot wound kind of made me think that we were going to get nothing from him, just in terms of how could we and how hard that would be on him. 

But how quick he came back from that and then when he did, just to watch him go through rookie things in a live NFL game and then having to watch him come back from that stuff throughout the year and still hit a rookie wall without a foundation of an offseason and stuff like that, I thought it was a huge success for him this year,” Shanahan added. General Manager John Lynch seconded him.

“Ricky, one thing he said to me, ‘Mr. Lynch, I just want to keep playing because I feel like I’m just getting my feet underneath me.’ So that’s really cool that he has that excitement and he’s going to use that. I said, now the key is you use that to motivate you through this offseason. And the best players, they don’t ever take a rest. They shutter down the intensity and things like that, but they never rest.”

And so, his mindset I can tell is right. He’s a really good football player. Proud of the way he handled a lot of adversity, things that nobody could anticipate and work through it,” the GM added. In his rookie season, Ricky Pearsall racked up 400 yards, snagged 31 receptions, and scored 3 touchdowns. But do you know the most astonishing part of the entire saga?

Just days after finishing his first season in the NFL, Pearsall said he wanted to meet the person who shot him and was curious to understand the reasons behind the act. “I don’t know how he grew up, so I can’t judge him as a man just based off one action that he made, as violent as a crime it was,” Pearsall told reporters on January 6. “God forbid him doing that to someone else. I don’t ever want that to happen,” he said.

“But for me, just being able to forgive him. I have to be able to forgive him to have that weight off my chest. At some point, I do want to talk to the kid. If I can create an impact on him in any way, I think that would be really good and I’d be open to doing that for sure,” he candidly added.

Honestly, folks, tip your hat out to this young guy for his contributions on the field despite everything he’s been through. Amid all these, as the 49ers wrap up their tough season, the team has announced their new offensive coordinator for the upcoming season.

Kyle Shanahan names the Niners’ new OC

It’s decided! The Lions’ offensive coordinator for this season, Ben Johnson, will say goodbye to the team after this season. Teams have been eyeing Johnson for a few years now. Last year, the Panthers approached him to become their head coach, but he declined their proposal. This year, the 38-year-old is ready to make his debut as an NFL head coach. Sports Illustrated‘s Albert Breer talked about the potential teams he could consider for his rookie season as a head coach. Breer thinks the Bears might be a perfect fit for him.

According to NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero, “Lions OC Ben Johnson will interview for the Patriots and Bears head coaching jobs during this week’s bye — a sign he has a real interest in both jobs.” As Kyle Shanahan gets ready for Johnson to leave, they’ve already picked their new OC. During the end-of-season press conference on Wednesday, Kyle and John Lynch announced that Klay Kubiak will take over the offensive coordinator role next season.

“Kubiak’s role is gonna stay the same as it’s always been — offensive coordinator… Now he’ll just get the official title.” Klay and Kyle have known each other for years, with their dads working together. So, they’ve been familiar with each other for a long time now. On Sunday, in their last game of the season, Coach Shanahan handed the play-calling duties over to Klay. Now that he’s stepping in as the offensive coordinator, it’ll be interesting to see what changes he brings next season.