The San Francisco 49ers continue to deal with Brandon Aiyuk, but they have a rookie who is turning heads in a positive way. There’s hope for a good year, and here are three 49ers sleepers who could break out in the 2026 NFL season.
Coming off a 12-5 season that ended with a playoff disaster against the eventual Super Bowl champion Seahawks, the 49ers made some good moves in the offseason to position themselves for another postseason run.
It will help matters if these three players reach their potential all at the same time.
49ers WR Ricky Pearsall could cut loose
It’s time. Yes, he had a tough start to his NFL career. And the former first-round pick is still just 25 years old. But after two nondescript seasons with less than 40 catches each year and only 928 total yards, Pearsall needs to hit the ground running in 2026, according to sports-reference.com via Sports Illustrated.
“Since 2010, there had been 62 receivers drafted in the first and second rounds of the NFL draft to fail to hit 1,200 yards in their first two years combined,” Parker Hurley wrote. “Of those, only 10 went on to sign legitimate contract extensions, with nine of them being on the team that drafted them.
“Pearsall is starting to get closer to being lumped in with names like Jonathan Mingo, Kadarius Toney, Elijah Moore, and Jalen Reagor.”
The 49ers need Pearsall to be a strong running mate for newly signed Mike Evans. That could make their offense very dangerous, according to Robert Mays of The Athletic via ninersnation.com.
“I think if (George) Kittle stays healthy, and if Kittle can come back and be on the field early in the season, and this is a terrifying thing to say, but if Pearsall can stay healthy, the combination of Mike Evans—even at this stage of his career, Kittle, Pearsall, and McCaffrey, to me, is absolutely terrifying,” Mays said.
“But beyond the big-picture takeaways and being reminded of how good it is, one of my conclusions after rewatching this is that I think Pearsall is a star. I legitimately think he’s a star-level player. With Kittle, with Evans, with McCaffrey, and everything Kyle Shanahan is doing, that to me is why they’re so high on the (best supporting cast) list for me.”
Is LB Mykel Williams about to reach a new level?
The problem with Williams isn’t with his run defense. But can he provide pressure on opposing quarterbacks? That’s a big question, according to Sports Illustrated.
“He came into the NFL as a better run defender than pass rusher, so he did live up to expectations,” Hurley wrote. “However, there are now legitimate questions about what type of pass-rush impact he can provide, if any at all.
“Williams has one sack in his rookie year, and even that sack came when he was rushing along the interior, not on the edge. Now, he is coming off an ACL injury and just played nine games.”
His numbers looked poor across the board in 2025, according to Pro Football Focus. He ranked 84th out of 115 edge rushers against the run. And his pass rush grade of 51.9 left him just nine spots away from dead last. There’s nothing good about either of those numbers.
However, Williams went No. 11 overall in the 2025 NFL Draft. The potential is there. He needs to display it this year.
RB Jordan James will have his chance
A fifth-round draft pick in 2025, James appeared in only three games last season. But he could have a much more defined role in 2026. With Brian Robinson Jr. out of the picture, the door is open for James to get carries.
James has quickness and lateral ability. He’s much more like Christian McCaffrey than Robinson. Add in the fact that the 49ers don’t want to overwork McCaffrey this year, according to The Athletic.
“When you look around the league, and you study great backs and study guys who affect the game like (McCaffrey) does, those guys do come out of the game,” offensive coordinator Klay Kubiak said. “Those guys do get a blow sometimes, and whether it’s a drive or a couple plays in a series, it helps those players. Christian knows that, and we’ve got to do a better job as coaches, we’ve got to do a better job at times of getting a better rotation.”
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