Kyle Shanahan and Brock Purdy's offense is as dysfunctional as it has ever looked with those two helming it. Now that offense has lost Brandon Aiyuk, the one true man coverage separator at receiver.
Jauan Jennings hasn't practiced in the last five practices. Deebo Samuel was limited Thursday, coming off a hospital stint for pneumonia. George Kittle, another elite man coverage beater, appears he'll play through a foot sprain.
The season might as well be on the line Sunday night against the Cowboys — an admittedly disastrous team with dysfunctional play everywhere but on special teams — and the answers are going to have to come from three young players, and one very experienced one.
How much faith do you have in Ricky Pearsall, Chris Conley, Jacob Cowing and Ronnie Bell? Because that's where the 49ers must place theirs Sunday.
Don't take that as a bleak assessment of the situation. Cowing showed very encouraging signs Sunday, with a 41-yard catch off a "curl pump" the clear highlight. His speed and shiftiness is a real asset and showed up in his 12 snaps (out-snapped by Bell 2-to-1).
Pearsall learning on the fly
Pearsall, meanwhile, was the 31st overall pick for a reason. While the best man coverage team of the league did get him on some press-man snaps, he also showed some exceptional snaps of beating press for any receiver, let alone for a rookie playing for the first time in a number of roles that he'd never been ask to play.
And let's be abundantly clear, Pearsall isn't a rookie uncertain of his ability. He isn't shy about the reality of his crafty route-running — using swim moves to release against press, and rocker-stepping his way into out-leveraging off-man corners — coupled with high-end athleticism.
"I feel like I was getting off the line of scrimmage," Pearsall told me. "I don't know about you, but if you watch the film, I was getting off the line of scrimmage. I was creating separation at the top of my routes, off the line. So the tape shows that, obviously not the targets and receptions. I know that I was creating separation for sure."
The tape absolutely shows that. It also shows times when Pearsall got stuck, failed to motion on a cue from Brock Purdy, looked up for a ball too late.
There is also a particularly interesting learning moment that came on a 1st-and-10 at the 9:28 mark of the third quarter. Chiefs safety Chamarri Conner came down alongside his linebackers to give Kansas City a seven-man box. Pearsall was matched up with Jaylen Watson, the Chiefs' go-to press-man corner, a couple yards to the left of the formation. Pearsall was running a high crosser (an intermediate crossing route), but stemmed his route too far inside and took a forearm shiver around five yards past the line of scrimmage from Conner.
Pearsall recovered, then beat the tight coverage from Watson anyway. The problem was, the timing was off because of that bump from Conner. Purdy had to take a short 3-yard scramble instead.
That's the stuff that takes time. It's those nuances that rookies, regardless of talent — and Pearsall is both talented and sharp — can only learn by doing. It's not a criticism of Pearsall, just a reality he has to face faster than expected. And he's aware of it.
"I just knew after that, next time I get that look like I probably need to widen the corner a little bit more," Pearsall said. "We had a motion off of that, so they rotated, and I think that just threw me off a little bit on my release point and how I was getting off the line of scrimmage. I think the safety caught me off guard, put his shoulder into me. I got to create a little bit more space as far as getting of the line of scrimmage with the box being right there, especially when we're in those condensed splits."
The 49ers have plenty of variations of that play, but the "yankee" concept is a huge staple of what they do. It features a play-action to pull linebackers closer to the line of scrimmage, paired with a clear out vertical route — in that case, from Cowing — and an intermediate crosser. You've seen Deebo Samuel rack up countless yards on that crosser. Pearsall should get a chance for some of his own, even if he ends up running the vertical route more than the crosser.
The veteran
One thing that can help Pearsall and the young crop immediately is having a veteran voice in the room.
Chris Conley, who appears set to play despite a sprained ankle, is now in his 11th year. He's the veteran who the 49ers have to count on to know every position inside and out. He played X (split end) receiver all of training camp, but said he hadn't lined up there a single time in practice since Brandon Aiyuk returned, until Sunday.
There are things that rookies have to go through growing pains to learn. Timing, nuances of route running... can they be learned by watching tape? On the practice field? Or only in games?
"I think that some of some of it comes through actually getting reps and working with the quarterback, but then some of it just general game knowledge," Conley told me. "There's certain things that, say, a young guy wouldn't necessarily know about the way the way a timing of a route changes free access versus press.
"That's something that you can clean up, and you can change completely without even being on the field, but you have to be intentional about it, and it differs based on the route, inside the numbers outside the numbers, what you're trying to attack, if you have something in your path that's going to throw off the timing, maybe your route needs to be a little bit shorter, maybe your angle needs to change. So there's things that we can work at and practice, but then also things that are just going to come with time and some conversations."
That last point begs a question of Brock Purdy. Some of this requires him to go out of his way to work on these connections. Those neural pathways aren't as well-tread as they are with Aiyuk, Kittle, Samuel and Jennings. There needs to be extra work in a time with little extra time.
Purdy stressed that practice has been crucial for getting those connections more familiar, but also said he's spoken to his receivers after practice on what he likes and what his receivers' preferences are.
“Yeah, this week at practice it's been good just getting into certain situations and reps where we're thinking I'm going to go to this receiver in a certain look," Purdy said. "And then after practice, running a couple routes or talking to those guys about, ‘Hey, this is what I'm expecting and how are you seeing it as a receiver?’ And we just get on the same page and I think that's huge. So like I said, we've got some young guys that are stepping into those roles and for me, it's huge understanding how they think and then vice versa. So, it's very vital.”
It's yet unclear how much of a role Deebo Samuel has, and how the 49ers will rotate their wide receivers. But it will be worth watching how the snap delineation for Cowing (12 snaps last week) and Bell (24 snaps last week) goes.
Bell is the clear weak link. He's had inconsistent hands and doesn't have the high-end athleticism to consistently create separation. That's a harsh analysis, but he's the sort of player that needs to be ultra-reliable and hasn't been. Jauan Jennings is that type of guy. He tested terribly before the draft, but is physical, crafty and meticulous in his route running, and doesn't drop anything.
This is a monumental opportunity for Bell. He's been in this system longer than the two rookies, and has to show now, or maybe never, that he belongs.
All that said, this is still a game against the Cowboys, a team with a putrid run defense with a league-worst +0.19 expected points added per play on rushing plays. Teams run outside the tackles on them more than any other team in the league, and that's music to the 49ers' ears. If the run game gets going, the burden will ease substantially on these receivers.
Dallas' corners, aside from Jourdan Lewis, have been very poor, and they don't excel at man coverage, let alone press man, like the Chiefs. It will be much easier for the 49ers than against Kansas City, but the 49ers have to show they can beat man for teams to stop throwing it at them.
Even if Dallas is a disaster, the 49ers haven't been anything near world-beaters this season. The offense has been disjointed, and is injecting new players into key roles. In a game with a season effectively on the line, that four-player receiving group will have to respond.