Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports
Expectations were high for San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Dante Pettis as he went into his second NFL season. Some went so far as to predict that he would become a breakout fantasy football star in the offensive line of head coach Kyle Shanahan.
Pettis finished last season with a pedestrian 11 receptions for 109 yards with two touchdowns. Its revenue on target percentage dropped from 60 percent in 2018 to 45.8 percent in 2019.
Quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo was not targeting Pettis after November 11, 2019, and the young receiver did not pick up a pass after Halloween night.
It sounds like Pettis is looking to prove he can do so much more.
Pettis reported to another player at a training camp, and had one of his most impressive practices with the 49ers on Tuesday, and had five catches across the middle during 11-on-11 drills. Two of those passes came from Garoppolo, who seems to be building on his relationship with the third-year receiver.
“I really wanted to see how much he prepared before he got here,” Shanahan said Thursday on KNBR. “You can tell that just by how the boys are doing, and really how they look when they come back.”
Pettis made a point to seek out Shanahan when he arrived at the team facility along with the rest of the veterans. He may want to do this sooner, but NFL rules prohibit face-to-face players from meeting coaches because of the coronavirus pandemic.
“Just away with Dante he came to my office the first day in my office, and we just had to sit for a while and talk and catch up,” Shanahan said. “You could just tell, look at him, that he had put the work in, in the weight room. The way he talks, you could tell he was a lot more confident, and he was ready to show us that he was. had placed in the work.
“And as soon as we got there (on the practice field), you could see exactly how he got off the ball, got in and out of his cuts, just his mentality that I think started with work, and you could see it over to the field.
“I think he got a lot more confidence in, and then that will hopefully pay off for him this year.”
Shanahan spoke for about three hours with reporters before jumping on KNBR and shared many of the same thoughts about that practice on Tuesday.
“I know he got a lot of balls and a lot of chances, but it wasn’t just that,” Shanahan added via video conference. “It was his behavior, the way he played, the aggression and his routes and everything. I’m very happy with Dante so far.”
Kyle Shanahan, head coach of the San Francisco 49ers, talks to reporters after training at Thursday’s training camp. Here’s all he had to say. Transcript provided by San Francisco 49ers Communications staff. I’m wondering if you have an update on DL DJ Jones? “No, it was a shoulder. They’re looking at it right now as we speak.” You apparently have to make changes to the interior of the offensive line. What do you see from the center and how does OL Daniel Brunskill get along there? “We had to mix a few guys in. We lost, the center was like our receivers, we’ve lost three centers so far, to begin with. [OL Weston] Richburg and then [OL Spencer]
San Francisco 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo spoke to reporters via a video conference call on Tuesday. He now had four practices to get an early feel for his latest receiving goals, rookies Brandon Aiyuk and Jauan Jennings. Aiyuk has looked good in the four San Francisco practices. He certainly got the attention from views on local reporters, and posed a question to the 49ers quarterback about the rookie. “He has been good,” said Garoppolo of Aiyuk. “There are flashes that you can see, that he has a good feeling for the feeling of the zones, and if it’s man-to-man, he knows how to break down routes, just do what he does must do to get open. It’s a real natural instinct, just run routes, for him. “It’s very cool to throw routes to a man
The San Francisco 49ers held their fourth practice of training camp on Tuesday and their second in full pads. Monday’s biggest storyline was the team that learned wide receiver Jalen Hurd would miss another full season after suffering a torn ACL over the weekend. He landed on injured reserve during his rookie campaign last year and will do so again this year. Players – and the media – will have a lot of need on Wednesday before returning to the practice schedule on Thursday. Below are some of Tuesday’s practice notes from various media outlets
