How Dante Pettis’ failures changed how 49ers draft

San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Dante Pettis went through the dreaded “sophomore slump” in 2019, but his impact has been felt in the Niners’ NFL Draft room, too.

Even assuming an NFL Draft prospect has the requisite size, speed and skill, his professional career can fail for a number of reasons: injury, attitude, lack of scheme fit, coaching changes and frequently, a combination of many factors. It is why player projections are so difficult; a talented college player can be an unproductive pro for reasons unrelated to the talents on which his has been evaluated.

For San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Dante Pettis, his disappointing second season (11 receptions, 109 yards and two touchdowns total) seems to have been caused, at least in part, by a basic desire to compete. Whether you call it passion, grit, determination or, as 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan has called it, a lack of “urgency,” Pettis’ development has been delayed by his unwillingness to challenge himself.

As harsh as these labels sound, this type of criticism has followed Pettis throughout his NFL career and before.  Coming out of college, there were reports scouts were questioning his “alpha personality,” saying he lacked one. Teams also questioned, fairly or not, his commitment to football because of his passions outside the game, including art, photography and cats.

This lack of fire seems to matter to Shanahan. Despite a need for receiving help last season, Pettis was on the field for only 29 percent of the 49ers offensive snaps and was targeted a mere 24 times all season. The 49ers gave up multiple mid-round picks in the 2020 NFL Draft for veteran wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders to bolster their receiving core last season, while an apparently healthy Pettis sat on the bench.

Of course, numerous factors are at play here, including Pettis’ struggles with consistency. But dropped passes alone fail to explain his disappearing act last season. It is Pettis’ lack of passion that has frustrated Shanahan. He has demanded Pettis improve his “mentality,” suggesting Pettis has not faced enough adversity in his football life to challenge himself.

Shanahan’s displeasure is evident in Pettis’ playing time, but also in how the 49ers have drafted wide receivers since Pettis’ rookie year.

Since 2018, Shanahan and general manager John Lynch have sought receivers who have the very competitiveness they hope to instill in Pettis.

The first receiver the team drafted after Pettis was Deebo Samuel in 2019, a player renowned for his toughness and competitive nature. Coming out of South Carolina, Samuel was described by scouts, first and foremost, as “extremely urgent and competitive,” “fearless” and a player who “plays each game like he is stepping into an alley fight.”

Apparently these traits were inborn, as Samuel was nicknamed “Deebo” as a child after the tough guy character from the movie, Friday.

In the 2020 draft, the Niners used a seventh-round pick on Jauan Jennings, a big-bodied receiver out of Tennessee who had a disappointing NFL Combine highlighted by a 4.72 40-yard dash time.

Like Samuel, though, Jennings possesses a toughness and demeanor San Francisco now covets.

Jennings has been lauded for his competitiveness and aggressiveness, and it is easy to see it translate to the field. Jennings is a determined run blocker and nearly impossible to tackle in the open field. Indeed, Jennings led college football last season with 30 broken tackles.

Sometimes Jennings’ passion for football has gotten him into trouble, such as when he was temporarily dismissed from Tennessee by the coaching staff after he publicly criticized coaches for not playing him despite a wrist injury, but it seems the Niners would rather err on the side of emotion and passion.

Samuel and Jennings are good football players in their own right. But if Shanahan was searching for players just to show the competitive fire Pettis lacks, he could not have found better prospects.

Shanahan is as good of a talent evaluator as there is in the NFL, but he understands many factors other than talent can derail a player’s career. After watching Pettis fail to excel in his offense, Shanahan is intent on ensuring he will not lose another player to a lack of “urgency.”

So while he may love second-year wide receiver Jalen Hurd’s versatility and vision, he also loved Hurd was “driven to prove people wrong,” and “courageous” when making catches in traffic. Shanahan valued Brandon Aiyuk’s explosiveness and open-field elusiveness, but also loved that his college coach, Herm Edwards, described him as a “high competitive player” who even volunteered to play defense for Arizona State to help the team.

These are the traits Pettis appeared to be lacking last year, and the Niners’ draft moves since have only served to highlight this aspect more.