Dante Pettis at crucial crossroads with 49ers in 2020
By Peter Panacy
Third-year wide receiver Dante Pettis fell out of favor with San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan last year, putting a major emphasis on what happens in 2020.
For San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Dante Pettis, 2020 is going to be a make-or-break season.
A year removed from an impressive-enough rookie campaign in 2018, Pettis’ 2019 got off on the wrong foot and then some. There were focus drops in training camp, Pettis being called out by head coach Kyle Shanahan and probably some other factors and issues never making it to the press wire.
Early that year, Pettis still looked like he could be a starter. By the end of the Niners’ 2019 campaign, Pettis was an afterthought, even being inactive for Super Bowl LIV.
“It’s been kind of wild. Lots of ups and downs,” Pettis said before the Super Bowl, via the San Jose Mercury News‘ Cam Inman.
Those ups and downs, which accompanied the 49ers going after veteran wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders at the NFL trade deadline last year, were also echoed by Shanahan.
“I saw it with Ahkello (Witherspoon) the way he came back last offseason,” Shanahan said, via The Athletic’s Matt Barrows (h/t Niners Nation). He looked different, and you could tell he was on a mission. That’s why those first few games before he got hurt, he was playing at an extremely high level. And that’s what I expect to happen with Dante.”
That mission, as Shanahan called it, has plenty of X-factors and outside influences this offseason.
San Francisco could lose Sanders to free agency, potentially freeing up another coveted spot alongside 2019 rookie Deebo Samuel. Yet this was a spot which was Pettis’ to lose in 2019, and lose it he did.
It also doesn’t help the 2020 NFL Draft is laden with top-flight wide receivers. The Niners already met with projected first- or second-round receivers, Justin Jefferson of LSU and Jalen Reagor of TCU, at the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis.
Yet with a limited number of draft picks this year, the 49ers may be forced to address other pressing needs, such as the secondary or interior offensive line, putting their hopes in a player like Pettis to make a massive leap between year two and three.
“Dante Pettis is still a guy we have a lot of belief in, and it’s incumbent upon him to have a tremendous offseason so that he sets himself up for success,” general manager John Lynch said from the combine.
Ultimately, it’s going to be up to Pettis to take advantage of whatever situation he’s given.
On the positive note, and there’s still hope here, Pettis flashed some truly impressive numbers towards the tail end of his rookie season.
Dante Pettis got off to a sluggish start in 2018. But over his final five games, he averaged 71.8 receiving yards per contest and had four touchdowns.
— Peter Panacy (@PeterPanacy) May 20, 2019
Extrapolated over a 16-game season, that's 1,148 yards and 12 touchdowns. That's entering WR1 territory, folks. #49ers #49wz
While there’s the ever-present possibility of a young player flaming out early in his career, it’s important to remember this came from not long ago and with a 49ers squad nowhere near the level of talent it had last season.
And the Niners will probably want to give as many chances to Pettis, too. After all, they moved up to No. 44 overall in the 2018 draft to grab him. That’s no small investment.
3 Niners receivers facing uncertain futures in 2020. dark. Next
Still, Pettis’ future ultimately rests in whether or not he’ll be able to bounce back from what was otherwise a 2019 season to forget. If he does, there’s plenty of time to provide an excellent return on San Francisco’s investment.
If he doesn’t, Pettis will be yet another member of the “what could have been” category.