Biggest concern regarding 49ers WR Ricky Pearsall

There’s a lot to like about 49ers rookie wide receiver Ricky Pearsall.

He runs crisp routes, rarely drops passes and blocks. He’s a complete wide receiver. But he didn’t have a breakout season until he was 23. And during this exceptional season, he only caught four touchdown passes. That’s an incredibly low number for a wide receiver drafted in the first round. For comparison, Jacob Cowing, the wide receiver drafted by the 49ers in the fourth round, caught 13 touchdown passes last season in Arizona.

In five seasons of college football, Pearsall never caught more than 5 touchdown passes in a season despite playing with quarterbacks Jayden Daniels and Anthony Richardson, both top-five picks. It’s confusing.

The 49ers presumably drafted Pearsall to potentially replace Deebo Samuel, who the 49ers included in trade discussions during the draft. But Samuel scores a lot of touchdowns. In his final college season, he scored 11. And in his five-year NFL career, he scored 38, including 12 last season.

The most successful receivers in the NFL managed to catch more than 5 touchdown passes in a season when they were in college, and even many unsuccessful passes. That’s because it’s difficult for college defenses to stop athletic receivers.

Pearsall posted extremely athletic tryout results at the Combine, but his production at Arizona State and Florida was ordinary. Defenses didn’t need to go out of their way to keep him out of the end zone. He wasn’t a major threat.

This looks like a potential fiasco.