49ers' Ricky Pearsall to miss 2026 season after knee surgery

Ricky Pearsall will undergo knee surgery and miss the entire 2026 season after the 49ers placed him on injured reserve on Aug. 1, general manager John Lynch announced. The setback came after a PCL flare-up in Pearsall’s knee, and concern grew quickly after just three training camp practices, with the issue worsening during the first week of camp.

The loss strips San Francisco of a former first-round investment before the regular season even begins. Pearsall was the No. 31 overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft out of Florida after earlier playing at Arizona State, and the 49ers drafted him with 159 college receptions for 2,420 receiving yards and 14 touchdowns on his resume. The roster page lists Pearsall at 25 years old, 6-foot-1, 189 pounds and wearing No. 1, a profile that had him positioned as a key piece in Kyle Shanahan’s passing game.

His absence forces the 49ers to compress their receiver plans around the rest of the roster. San Francisco had already moved to reunite with Deebo Samuel after Pearsall’s injury setback, a move that now looks less like roster juggling and more like an urgent response to a thinner depth chart. With Pearsall out for the year, Lynch and Shanahan have fewer in-house answers and more pressure to make the passing game work without the young receiver they expected to develop through training camp.

The timing also recalls the damage San Francisco absorbed in 2024, when Brandon Aiyuk tore his ACL and MCL and was lost for the year. That injury, combined with other receiver and skill-position setbacks, forced the 49ers to keep reshaping their offense around whoever could stay on the field. Pearsall’s season-ending surgery extends that pattern and pushes more of the burden onto Samuel and the remaining pass-catchers, while narrowing the front office’s options before the season starts.