Ricky
Pearsall.
Ricky
Pearsall.
Florida· 6'1"· 189 lb· 4.41s 40
"He is not the biggest receiver on the board, but he is the one who gets open on schedule and catches everything he can reach."Pre-draft read
Pearsall played every alignment in Florida's offense — outside, slot, motion, jet sweeps — and won with route detail instead of size. He builds speed off the line without telegraphing stems, sinks his hips at the top of the route and separates late on digs, overs and deep crossers. Hands are the calling card: he plucks away from the frame and finishes contorted, off-platform catches most receivers wave at.
The second layer is verified explosiveness — 4.41 speed, a 42-inch vertical, a 6.64 three-cone — so he uncovers on double moves and climbs for balls above a 189-pound frame. He is willing but light as a blocker, and adds snaps as a punt returner and gadget runner. The signature is mid-air body control: he adjusts his track and lays out.
Timing-based West Coast offense with heavy motion and play-action
Year 1: rotational Z and slot in three-receiver sets who wins on option and crossing routes. Ceiling: a full-time separation-first WR2 in a rhythm passing game.
A vertical isolation X in a heavy-press division where he is asked to beat physical boundary corners with size and contested wins snap after snap.
Motion and stacked releases keep him clean off the line and protect the one hole in the profile.
Ricky Pearsall 2023 Florida Highlights
Senior-season reel: route detail, deep-ball tracking and the acrobatic catches.
Film Room: Florida WR Ricky Pearsall vs South Carolina
All-22 style breakdown of his releases and separation at the top of routes.
Ricky Pearsall Florida Highlights | No. 31 Overall to 49ers
Pre-draft package cut after San Francisco took him at pick 31.
A five-year college receiver with two programs behind him, Pearsall arrived in the class as the most technically finished separator outside the top tier. He is a route craftsman first, a movement athlete second, and the two traits stack: the release package and stem discipline create the window, the burst and leaping ability finish it.
Production followed the move east. After a supporting role at Arizona State, his transfer to Florida turned into 33 catches for 661 yards in 2022 and a full-scale senior season of 65 catches for 965 yards in 12 games, all inside an offense that rarely gave him clean structural advantages. The signature reps were the acrobatic ones — the one-handed, upside-down grab that went viral in 2022 was the play the whole league saw — but the flags were real: a slight frame, short arms and a catch radius that depended on timing rather than mass.
The board treated him as a late first- to early second-round receiver, with clubs split on whether he was a starting X or a high-end movement piece. San Francisco, a place where separation and route nuance matter more than size, was the cleanest landing spot on the map, and taking him at 31 was a scheme selection more than a value reach.
- 01
Route craft
Sells stems, changes speed inside routes and drops his weight without gathering, which lets him separate late against both press and off coverage.
- 02
Hands and body control
Plucks away from the frame and finishes contorted, off-platform catches; the one-handed grabs on his tape are repeatable, not accidents.
- 03
Verified explosiveness
4.41 in the forty with a 42-inch vertical and 129-inch broad jump gives him vertical juice and a jump-ball window above his listed size.
- 04
Change of direction
A 6.64 three-cone and 4.05 short shuttle show up on option routes, whip routes and the double moves he was trusted with in Florida's offense.
- 05
Alignment versatility
Played outside, in the slot and on jet motion, and carried real value as a punt returner and gadget runner rather than a one-spot receiver.
- 01
Frame and mass
Listed at 189 pounds with 30 7/8-inch arms, and physical corners can reroute him early and shrink his working space at the catch point.
- 02
Contested strength
Wins with timing and leaping rather than force; when a defender gets hands inside on him at the top, the ball rarely comes down his way.
- 03
Blocking impact
Effort is there but the anchor is not, so he gets caught in the wash on perimeter run downs against corners who play through him.
- 04
Age and runway
Turned 24 during his rookie year after five college seasons, which shortens the developmental curve teams usually buy at the end of round one.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 4.41sp50
- Vertical
- 42inp50
- Broad jump
- 129inp50
- Three-cone
- 6.64sp50
- Shuttle
- 4.05sp50
- Bench
- 17repp50
| Yr | Team | G | Rec | Yds | TD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Arizona State | 4 | 6 | 86 | 1 |
| 2021 | Arizona State | 13 | 48 | 580 | 4 |
| 2022 | Florida | 13 | 33 | 661 | 5 |
| 2023 | Florida | 12 | 65 | 965 | 4 |
| Career | — | 55 | 159 | 2420 | 14 |
Career totals include his 2019 true-freshman season at Arizona State, which is not broken out on cfbstats; only verified seasons are listed.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
A movement receiver who lives in the slot and off motion and produces when healthy.
The upside outcome if the separation and burst translate into a high-volume, every-down role.
The floor if mass and availability cap him as a situational route technician.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Year one never really started. Pearsall was shot in the chest during an attempted robbery in San Francisco three weeks before the opener, opened on the reserve/non-football injury list and did not debut until Week 7. What followed was one of the more remarkable rookie arcs of the class: 31 catches for 400 yards and three touchdowns in 11 games, including a 141-yard, one-touchdown afternoon against Detroit in the season finale that hinted at a real role. Year two put him in the starting lineup — nine games, nine starts, 36 catches for 528 yards — before injury ended his season and pushed him back to injured reserve. Through two years he sits at 67 receptions, 928 yards and three touchdowns.
In hindsight the evaluation held up and the health did not. The traits scouts bought — separation, hands, route nuance inside a timing offense — travelled exactly as projected, and San Francisco used him as the movement receiver everyone forecast. What the process could not price was availability: 20 games in two seasons, with the interruptions coming from outside the tape both times. He remains a starter-quality piece whose grade is still waiting on a full 17-game sample rather than a verdict.
Data note: Career totals include his 2019 true-freshman season at Arizona State, which is not broken out on cfbstats; only verified seasons are listed.