San Francisco 49ers: 3 possible outcomes for Dante Pettis in 2020
By Peter Panacy
No. 3: Dante Pettis Bounces Back
This would obviously be the best-case scenario for both Dante Pettis and the 49ers. After all, they moved up to No. 44 overall in the 2018 NFL Draft to grab him, and there’s still time to cash in on the investment.
Back at the 2020 NFL Scouting Combine, Kyle Shanahan told The Athletic’s Matt Barrows he wants Pettis to go “on a mission.”
Here are the specific words (h/t Niners Nation):
"That is what some guys go through. Dante did that his rookie year trying to make the league and stuff. He took a documented step back in the second year, which I’ve been around a lot of players who have done that. The players I’ve been around, which has been a ton, they go one way or the other: they keep being like that and usually filter out, or it’s a wake-up call for them. They come back, and you can see it in April, that ‘this guy treated January to April so much different than the year before,’ and it usually changes their career."
In fairness to Pettis, he flashed some top-level receiving numbers late in 2018:
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
It’s not like Pettis simply lost the ability to become an impact player. Something else happened along the way, although it’s hard to point out specifically what.
But if Pettis is able to recognize what changed, rectify it and embrace the soon-to-happen competition at the position between now and Week 1, there’s just as equal a chance the former Washington Husky winds up emulating the kind of numbers seen back late in 2018.