SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- One year after he was shot in the chest on the streets of downtown San Francisco, that near-death experience is never far from 49ers receiver Ricky Pearsall's mind.
Where Pearsall's PTSD was an obstacle in the days, weeks and months after the Aug. 31, 2024 shooting, he has used the past 365 days as an opportunity to reframe the incident in a way that he believes has allowed him to grow as a player and person.
"Unfortunately, I revisit that every single night I go to bed," Pearsall said. "I kind of just carry that with me. And now I think it's not as much of avoiding it or revisiting it or not revisiting it. It's more of how I deal with it and the light that I put on it. And for me it's more of a positive light and the things that I can get out of that and more of a positive direction and try to inspire other people ... I've been doing a better job of dealing with it myself."
In the 24 hours after Pearsall was shot in an armed robbery attempt that took place while he was shopping, Pearsall laid in a hospital bed and asked anyone who would listen the two most pressing questions on his mind: Am I going to live and, if so, am I going to be able to play football again?
The medical professionals quickly assured Pearsall he would live and, within the ensuing hours, that yes, a return to the football field would be in his future. As it turned out, Pearsall came back quicker than most anyone could have imagined, as he made his NFL debut 50 days after he was shot.
From there, Pearsall's rookie season was anything but linear. Having already missed so much of training camp with a shoulder issue and then recovering from the gunshot wound, Pearsall had a solid start to his career with 11 catches for 132 yards and a touchdown in his first three games. He followed with two catches for 21 yards in his next five games before a finishing flourish in which he had 247 yards and two scores on 18 receptions in the final three contests.
Fair or not given his relative lack of experience and a hamstring injury that slowed him in the spring, Pearsall's promising 2024 finish combined with injuries to the likes of Brandon Aiyuk (right knee) and Jauan Jennings (calf/contract) have thrust the second-year wideout into a de facto No. 1 receiver role as the Niners open the regular season Sunday against the Seattle Seahawks (4:05 p.m. ET, Fox).
"I've just got to be able to step in that role," Pearsall said. "I look at myself as being able to be a guy that goes out there and makes plays."
If Pearsall's training camp was any indication of what 2025 could bring, there's plenty of evidence he is ready to step into the spotlight.
When the Niners used the No. 31 pick in 2024 on Pearsall, they did so in part because of his polished route running skills. After the Kansas City Chiefs gave many of the Niners pass catchers fits in Super Bowl LVIII by deploying man coverage on 73.2% of quarterback Brock Purdy's drop backs (the second-most Purdy had seen since taking over as the starter in 2022), San Francisco sought a wideout capable of consistently getting open in one-on-one situations.
Pearsall showed glimpses of that ability in his first few games, but the ball wasn't thrown his way as much during that midseason drought. While it's one thing to beat man coverage, the Niners offense also requires the type of precision that Pearsall simply wasn't able to rep much in last year's training camp.
Upon returning to playing, Pearsall said he felt like he was "behind the eight ball" and "rolled out of bed and started running routes" for most of his rookie season. Pearsall viewed the part of the season he played as his own training camp, working on being in the right spots and building rapport with Purdy.
"In our offense, it's usually steps, timing, you're breaking at a certain angle, and last year Ricky was raw with his talent," Purdy said. "He had it, but he also had to learn our system, our timing, and where I'm throwing the ball ... I think that there were some times where he had to learn that he couldn't take a couple more steps and then break out. ... We had a couple of those moments and there were times where he took it a little deeper and then broke open. He was like, 'Dude I was open.' I said in the timing of the play, I needed it quicker."
To that end, Pearsall dedicated a substantial amount of offseason time to making sure that he and Purdy are in sync. Pearsall traveled to Jacksonville, Florida, to work with Purdy on timing and nuances of some of the routes in the Niners' playbook. The two also spent time working together in Arizona and entered organized team activities feeling like they'd made progress.
Although that development hit pause when Pearsall injured his hamstring in OTAs, it was quickly evident that Purdy and Pearsall had made tangible improvements in their connection once Pearsall stepped on the field in training camp.
On Aug. 2, just days after Pearsall returned to practice, he made five catches in team drills with four of those coming from Purdy and three of those going for would-be big gains. In the practices that followed, Pearsall had similar production, putting an exclamation point on his strong camp with an over-the-shoulder grab about 40 yards downfield with safety Ji'Ayir Brown close in coverage.
Pearsall and Purdy provided a glimpse of what took place in practice in their only action of the preseason against the Las Vegas Raiders when they connected three times for 42 yards on the game's opening drive.
"I think Ricky just gets better and better the more he is out there," 49ers offensive coordinator Klay Kubiak said. "He's just got to stay out there and stay healthy and take care of his body. I think the sky's the limit for him."
With most of his energy going into football these days, Pearsall hasn't spent much time wondering about the person who shot him.
After last season, Pearsall said he has "to be able to forgive him" and mentioned the possibility of meeting the shooter to talk to him in person. That has not happened yet, though Pearsall said former Niners guard Aaron Banks has a family member who works in the juvenile system in the area and could help arrange a potential meeting.
"I want to first see if he's open to it because that's also important to me," Pearsall said. "If he's not open to it, then it's not even going to be a thing. It's definitely an opportunity that I'll probably do moving forward at some point."
In the meantime, Pearsall's focus remains football. Teammates and coaches who have been in Pearsall's orbit for the past year still marvel not only at how he's been able to recover physically but at how Pearsall has handled the emotional and mental fallout of what took place on that late August day.
"Ricky is a special kid in terms of just how upbeat he is, how positive he is, he is kind of the same every day to us," Niners coach Kyle Shanahan said. "For such a traumatizing thing to happen to him where I know you're going to deal with PTSD there, you're going to not trust things as much, just to get shot randomly like that and to think you're going to die. ...That was as scary of a thing as I've been a part of. And to watch it not change who he is, to watch it not change his soul and his happiness and how he comes off, I think has been the coolest thing."