The San Francisco 49ers made their return to Day 1 of the NFL Draft, and with the 31st-overall pick, selected wide receiver Ricky Pearsall out of the University of Florida. Pearsall's draft profile describes him as a slot receiver that is a detailed route runner with soft hands who "adjusts his track and lays out to make the make the catch."
Below are three takeaways from the team's press conference following Day 1 of the draft:
President of football operations and general manager John Lynch shared that Pearsall was a consensus pick amongst the members of the 49ers scouting department and coaching staff.
"He's a guy that throughout the process we liked early and kept getting stronger," Lynch said. "He does a lot of things well, does a lot of things we covet at that position well. We believe we have a really strong group there, and we wanted to add another player. Ricky is a very versatile player and also has some punt return value that we think will come in handy. We just felt like it was the right guy at the right time, and (we're really) excited about him."
Head coach Kyle Shanahan detailed how he sees Pearsall fitting into his offensive scheme.
"He just plays the position really well. Whether he was outside, inside, either receiver, all three of the positions," Shanahan said. "He can separate down the field. He can separate underneath. He has great hands. He's very smart. You can tell he's very well developed. I guess (I would) call him a gym rat or something because you can tell he's worked on his routes. He's put in a lot of hours because you can see it on tape, and there is really nothing he can't do. He can fit into whatever role based off the other guys."
Pearsall is a prospect the 49ers have been aware of since his true freshman year at Arizona State.
"I talked to (Arizona State head football coach) Herm (Edwards) a lot. Herm and I are close," Lynch said. "I remember when he was a true freshman at Arizona State. Herm started telling me about this kid and how excited he was about him. He spent his time there and moved over to Florida, and even upped his game, against as good of competition as you will find in college football."
