The 49ers are racing Ricky Pearsall back out there

Just seven weeks after San Francisco 49ers first-round pick Ricky Pearsall was shot in the chest during an attempted robbery in San Francisco, the rookie seems set to make his NFL debut.

CBS Sports insider Jonathan Jones reported Friday morning that there's a "strong expectation" Pearsall will play Sunday against the Kansas City Chiefs, just 50 days after he was shot. His report came shortly after 49ers general manager John Lynch said, "Absolutely, there's a chance," during his weekly appearance on KNBR's " Murph and Markus " morning show.

"To Ricky's credit, after a horrific situation, he responded extremely well physically and attacked the work to get himself back and just kept working," Lynch said. "He did everything he could to the side to the point where it was time to unleash him and open that [practice] window."

The 49ers had an extra practice this week because they last played last Thursday. Pearsall took the practice field Monday, his first time on the field since being shot (the 49ers subsequently placed him on injured reserve to give him time to recover). Earlier this week, Kyle Shanahan shared details from that practice , saying Pearsall tired himself out rather quickly out of sheer excitement to be back out there.

But Shanahan mostly expressed caution when asked about how soon Pearsall could take the field — which seemed justified, given that Athletic columnist Mike Silver wrote Thursday that Pearsall "couldn't fully lift his right arm above his head until last week." Shanahan told reporters on a conference call last week that he expected it would be a "longer ramp-up period" for Pearsall and that the team was "not going to rush it."

In his weekly KNBR spot with the " Tolbert and Copes " show Thursday, however, he was asked how Pearsall's skill set can help the 49ers against man coverage, which the Chiefs like to run defensively.

"Ricky's a really good receiver. I'm not putting him all on, 'He's got to play in this game to help us that way.' That's a little, a lot of pressure to put on him, but that's one of the reasons that we wanted to draft him," Shanahan said Thursday. "He's very good versus man, and he's a good football player versus everything. The quicker we can get Ricky up to speed — which we're working on real hard right now, and I know he is — as this year goes, I believe he's going to help us a lot."

The 49ers sure could use some extra receiver help this week. Jauan Jennings has missed the past two practices with a hip injury, and Deebo Samuel has been limited with a wrist injury. When you add those concerns to Brandon Aiyuk's struggles to open the season, there's a need for a playmaker on the outside. Whether or not that's a factor in the Pearsall decision, there's been a clear tone shift even from Shanahan's Thursday afternoon KNBR hit to Lynch's show Friday morning.

"He's stacked two really good practices here — we've got to see how he responds today," Lynch said. "We'll make a decision as to whether he's out there, but I think it's trending in the right direction."