How Ricky Pearsall fits within the 49ers' Brandon Aiyuk/Deebo ...

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Think of Ricky Pearsall as the guy the San Francisco 49ers drafted to replace Deebo Samuel. Or Brandon Aiyuk. Eventually.

One or the other. But probably not right away. Just whenever it becomes necessary, and yes, it will become necessary at some point. Got it?

It’s complicated! On a relatively muddled NFL Draft night for the 49ers’ present and future at the wide-receiver position, things did not get much clearer when the 49ers used the 31st pick to select Pearsall, a receiver out of Florida, who wasn’t projected to go that high and certainly doesn’t seem to be as talented as either Deebo or Aiyuk.

But the logic of this pick was spelled out if you listened to Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch explain on Thursday night why they took Pearsall and how he fits in their locker room and offense. It’s about his versatility, his aptitude for the position, his toughness and the 49ers’ certainty that he’ll be a well-rounded NFL receiver. He won’t be lost out there on Day 1 of rookie minicamp. He’s a “gym rat,” Shanahan said, which, if you know Shanahan, is about the highest praise he can give a player. Especially a WR, which is Shanahan’s old position.

Simply put, Pearsall won’t be needed right away if the 49ers hold onto Aiyuk and Deebo this offseason. But whenever the 49ers turn to him, Shanahan and Lynch believe Pearsall will be just fine. It might be this season, if the 49ers decide their contractual situation with Aiyuk is intractable, which could lead to a trade as early as Friday. Or if they decide to trade Deebo instead.

Most likely, the 49ers will hold onto both top WRs this season … but given what it will cost to keep Aiyuk around, the 49ers in that scenario would probably seriously consider trading or releasing Deebo next offseason. And at that point, Pearsall would be the obvious Deebo replacement at a fraction of the cost.

That’s a lot of things going all at once, a lot of things still up in the air, and all of it led to this compromise/consensus/realistic draft pick when more highly regarded players were available at other positions. Pearsall is valuable because he can be the future replacement for either of the 49ers’ top WRs.

“All of it comes into play,” Shanahan said. “I think the hardest thing when guys look at needs and stuff, at rosters, especially when it’s a position that’s not quarterback, where lots of guys play and you have different personnel packages, needs aren’t always so obvious just that year. They could become a lot bigger in the second year. They can be bigger in the first year, you never know how something’s going to play out. So that need could be extremely important right now or come training camp.

“But you also know we have to get some draft picks in here, some younger guys that are for sure going to contribute. … Especially with Brock (Purdy) and things like that. So all that plays into it.”

Purdy absolutely does play into this because the quarterback will be due a huge contract extension after next season. And the 49ers have to figure out how to organize their receiving corps when that happens.

Deebo probably will be moving out of his prime by the end of next season; Aiyuk should be right in the middle of his best years; and Pearsall might just be ready to get going. Purdy needs targets that will be around when he’s in his prime, too.

“(Pearsall) just plays the position real well, whether he was outside, inside, all three positions,” Shanahan said. “He can separate down the field, he can separate underneath, extremely good hands. … There’s nothing he can’t do.

“He makes guys tackle him. He’s not just looking for a place to fall. When he doesn’t have the ball, he plays just as hard as when the ball’s in his hands.”

This is no simple set of circumstances. It’s layered. And it’s unresolved. Aiyuk definitely was the focus of some trade talk the last few days; clearly, the 49ers didn’t get a good enough offer on Thursday to make the deal, but Shanahan and Lynch also refused to rule out the possibility that there could be a trade during Friday’s second and third rounds or later. Oh, and they wouldn’t rule out trading Deebo, either.

“Yeah, I thought it was unlikely going into it, but that doesn’t mean that it can’t happen,” Shanahan said of Aiyuk trade possibilities during the first round. “You listen to everything. Everything’s about trying to improve our team as much as we can for 2024 without jeopardizing ’25 as much as possible.

“So that’s everything you look into. Whenever that opportunity comes, whichever way, if you can improve your team, you do that. Sometimes it’s hard to picture improving your team, though, without him.”

Two years ago, Shanahan and Lynch said similar things after Deebo’s own contractual situation led to similar trade rumors during the draft. They fielded offers. They admitted it was still up in the air. Just like what happened on Thursday this time around. Obviously, Deebo wasn’t traded back then. I don’t think Aiyuk is likely to be traded now.

I suspect the 49ers are very open to trading Deebo, though the move would create a large dead-cap hit; they’d be charged almost as much to have him not on the roster as they would if they keep him. And this is a team desperate for a Super Bowl, so why not just keep Deebo for one more year unless there’s a tremendous trade offer?

“Why is it always us?” Lynch joked about the trade rumors. “I know that we’re continuing to have positive talks with BA. We are really efforting to get something done with him. We’re excited about continuing down that path and Brandon being a part of this team. Deebo is a part of this team and a big part of this team. We feel great about that group, and we feel like we just made it better.”

The 49ers will listen. The financial math definitely says they’ll be listening to anything. Which will generate all the rumors and rumblings, until all this is settled. And now they have Pearsall, the spare WR on a team that doesn’t know when it will need him, but only that it definitely will at some point.

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(Top photo of Ricky Pearsall at February’s NFL combine: Kevin Sabitus / Getty Images)