Kawakami: The emergency Deebo/Pearsall flip-flop and more 49ers notes from camp 36%
By Tim Kawakami50%
8/1/2026, 6:00:00 AM
BS Summary: This article contains 24 faulty reasoning types, including Hasty Generalization, Biased Writer Voice, and Halo Effect, with Overconfidence Bias as the most egregious example at 18.7% saturation with 191 hits. Analysis detected 1,333 faulty-reasoning hits from 1,020 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 37.9% and a BS Rank of 36% (16,474 of 25,564 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 64.40% of the article peer group.
Everybody has a proud plan until they get punched in the face by the first few days of training camp.
The 49ers are used to this, of course, especially at wide receiver.
Their past several camps and offseasons have been a storm of injuries, bitter contract negotiations, and swiftly altered plans.
And this year?
The 49ers rushed to sign Deebo Samuel this week to replace the continuously injured Ricky Pearsall, who was drafted in 2024 in part to replace … Deebo.
It wasn’t supposed to work this way.
But the 49ers didn’t have any other choice.
“The good thing is with (Samuel), he kind of fits a lot of places,” unofficial interim coach Chris Foerster said after Friday’s practice.
Though Deebo requested a trade twice during his 49ers career — the second request was granted when he was sent to Washington in March 2025 — he, very much unlike his old colleague Brandon Aiyuk, has remained in good standing with the 49ers and has always been a Kyle Shanahan and locker-room favorite.
Of course, at 30, Deebo’s far from the player who carried the 49ers as a “wide back” in 2021.
But he’s a trusted figure at Levi’s Stadium — he’ll likely move right into the flanker spot that Pearsall took over after Deebo was traded.
The long-range problem, though, is that Pearsall’s recurring knee issues from last season might wipe out the 2026 season for one of the 49ers’ few young offensive skill players.
And that would take him three seasons into his career without making a major impact and with the 49ers coming up on a major decision about carrying him on the roster much longer.
But for now, Deebo should be a quick and easy fix at flanker and presumably comes in understanding that he’s a complementary player now — behind Evans, Christian McCaffrey, George Kittle, and maybe eventually De’Zhaun Stribling in the offensive pecking order.
It’s just not the way the 49ers planned it.
They’re an old team that got even older with this move.
Their WR room will need more work next offseason and the offseason after that.
But what else were they going to do once they saw that Pearsall couldn’t make it through a couple of practices this week?
Here are some more notes and thoughts from Friday’s first padded practice and the start of camp …
• Other than Evans, the most impressive WR in camp, by far, has been Stribling, who has a huge opportunity with Pearsall out and Christian Kirk nursing a sore calf.
Stribling is big, accelerates out of cuts very smoothly, catches the ball cleanly, and seems to have quickly earned the trust of the quarterbacks.
He’s been so good that Evans, a six-time Pro Bowler, all but shouted out his name on Friday when asked to name a standout young player.
“Strib!”
Evans said.
“Strib’s standing out.
He’s had a really good offseason and OTAs and he’s continued to do that in training camp.”
I’m a zero-time Pro Bowler, but in my eyes, Stribling’s early-camp play has been more consequential than any 49ers highly drafted rookie receiver since Aiyuk in 2020 and Deebo in 2019 — and has already placed him above Pearsall, Dante Pettis, Danny Gray, and Jalen Hurd.
• The players and coaches went nuts after the Brock Purdy-to-Evans lob-dunk touchdown pass over Upton Stout in the Red Zone drill on Friday for an obvious reason:
I think everybody could imagine this being repeated six or seven times in the regular season and maybe a few times in the playoffs.
I mean, I’m not sure how anybody will really stop it if the 49ers get the right read.
• Early bubble-wrap consideration: Maybe the 49ers should already start thinking of going into full-protection mode for Evans.
He’s the only WR1 on this roster.
Without him, I don’t know what they’d do.
• Nick Martin alert: He’s getting first-team reps as the strong-side linebacker and he looks like he might hold onto the spot.
We’ll see how this develops — but if Martin can stay healthy and stay ahead of Luke Gifford and others at SAM, the 49ers will pick up a lot of sideline-to-sideline speed for a linebacking group that, of course, already has Fred Warner and Dre Greenlaw flying around.
• There’s nothing like watching Trent Williams in the 49ers’ one-on-one pass-blocking drills.
On Friday, he took one of the first reps, absolutely dominated rookie Romello Height, and was held out of the rest of the session.
What more did anybody need to see?
(Height had a highlight of his own later when he blew past fellow rookie Enrique Cruz Jr.)
Then Nick Bosa, who was held out of the drill, asked to do some special side work with Williams.
Which is why Trent is Trent, the ultimate team alpha.
• Shanahan must be feeling better, because during the Red Zone drill he stationed himself in a spot I always try to avoid — right in front of one the huge speakers, which at that point was blaring AC/DC’s “Back in Black.”
Foerster said that Shanahan has been in the building throughout the day to start camp and has been there breaking down the practice tape daily.
“The very first day of practice, Kyle was in there and ran the tape,” Foerster said Friday.
“We went through it, and it seems pretty good, maybe minus as many ribbings and jokes as he tries to get me with … For the most part, it’s pretty straightforward, correcting the tape, and he’s really good.”
• Foerster, who doesn’t usually like to address the full team, said things are feeling comfortable enough that he actually gave the team speech before Friday’s practice.
His theme: Stay safe during the first padded practice, make sure you protect your teammates.
But oops, the 49ers had a few scuffles late in the session, one of them a near free-for-all about 20 feet in front of Shanahan and John Lynch.
“I did a great job with that one, right?”
Foerster joked.
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