The 49ers are ailing. They ended up without their three top wide receivers by the first half of Sunday afternoon, and they will be without their highest-paid one, likely, for the rest of the year.
Jauan Jennings missed Sunday with a hip injury — Shanahan said he hopes he's back next week — and Deebo Samuel came down with an illness that Kyle Shanahan said made it difficult for him to breathe. Then, Brandon Aiyuk suffered a knee injury that forced him to leave the game on a cart.
Shanahan said after the game that Aiyuk's injury was likely "an ACL," which would be a season-ending injury if accurate, and torn.
"You can’t really replace, in my opinion, one of the best players in the NFL," George Kittle said. "It sucks. He had a hell of a week of practice. He was just, unreal catches left and right. He was just starting to hit his stride in the season after not doing training camp."
That leaves a situation where the 49ers will have to turn to Ricky Pearsall as their top X receiver. Kyle Shanahan discussed his outside usage given the injury context.
"He looked great in practice," Shanahan said. "He was going to get eased in a little today. That changed a little bit with Deebo going out, then it changed a bunch with Aiyuk going out. So he had to do more than we expected today and I was proud of him for handling it."
After the game, Pearsall said the biggest challenge in his recovery from the gunshot wound was the scar tissue that built up in his chest.
Pearsall started well, then got locked up for most of the game. He had a strong final drive, and finished with three catches for 21 yards, but fatigue and inexperience in his first career game are hard to shrug off.