The San Francisco 49ers suffered their most devastating injury of the season when wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk went down with a torn ACL and MCL in their Week 7 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs.
Aiyuk is out for the season, and he could possibly miss part of next season as well.
With wideout Jauan Jennings dealing with a hip injury, and Deebo Samuel recovering from pneumonia, the onus is on Ricky Pearsall to produce.
The rookie recently commented on what it was like to see his friend suffer a devastating injury.
“One of my close buddies that I’ve known for a really long time. So it hurt my heart to see him go down,” Pearsall said, via 95.7 The Game. “But that’s kind of what comes along with football. So now we got a lot of rookies that need to step up, including myself. So, very excited to do that.”
Aiyuk had staged a hold-in during training camp and asked to be traded after his request for a lucrative contract extension went unheeded.
Near the start of the regular season, he finally agreed to a four-year, $120 million extension, but he failed to perform up to his standards in the first six games.
The Niners’ injury woes have grown worse with each passing week, and at this point they’re weak at multiple positions.
Pearsall will now get a shot to prove he can be a legitimate contributor less than two months after he escaped major injury during an armed robbery attempt.
He had three catches for 21 yards in his NFL debut, and one has to figure he will be more involved in San Francisco’s offense from this point on, if for no other reason than necessity.
