Born September 9, 2000, in Phoenix, Arizona, Richard Pearsall Jr. grew up in Chandler, Arizona, and attended Corona del Sol High School in Tempe. As a junior, he set the Arizona High School 6A receiving record for a single game with 342 yards on fourteen receptions against Gilbert High School, finishing the season with seventy-four receptions for 1,153 yards and fifteen touchdowns. Rated a three-star recruit, Pearsall committed to Arizona State over offers from Air Force, Hawaii, Idaho, New Mexico State, Northern Arizona, and UC Davis. Pearsall began his college career at Arizona State, recording forty-eight receptions for 580 yards and a team-high four receiving touchdowns as a junior in 2021. After entering the NCAA transfer portal, he transferred to Florida, where he had thirty-three receptions for 661 yards and five touchdowns in 2022, including a breakout performance against Florida State with five receptions for 148 yards and two touchdowns. In 2023, Pearsall posted sixty-five receptions for 965 yards and four touchdowns. Strengths include exceptional speed demonstrated by his 4.41-second forty-yard dash at the NFL Combine, precise route running, big-play ability evidenced by his 20.0 yards per reception average at Florida in 2022, and strong hands for contested catches. The San Francisco 49ers selected Pearsall in the first round with the thirty-first overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, making him the sixth wide receiver drafted that year. He signed a four-year, $12.35 million contract with a $5.93 million signing bonus. On August 31, 2024, a seventeen-year-old attempting to steal Pearsall's Rolex watch shot him through the chest in Union Square, San Francisco, while he was en route to an autograph signing event. Remarkably, he was released from San Francisco General Hospital the following day and activated to the roster on October 19. Pearsall made his NFL debut in Week 7 against the Kansas City Chiefs with three receptions for twenty-one yards. Against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, he caught his first career touchdown along with four receptions for seventy-three yards. His breakout performance came in Week 17 against the Detroit Lions, where he recorded eight receptions for 141 yards and a touchdown—the most yards by a 49ers rookie receiver in a single game since Jerry Rice's 241 yards in 1985. Pearsall finished the 2024 season with thirty-one receptions for 400 yards and three touchdowns. His father, Ricky Pearsall Sr., is a captain within the Phoenix Fire Department who played college football at Northern Arizona.
