49ers' Marquise Goodwin hones his receiving skills

SANTA CLARA - Before this season, 49ers wide receiver Marquise Goodwin was an Olympic track star who played professional football.

Now, Goodwin is a football star who used to run track.

In college at the University of Texas, Goodwin never caught more than 33 passes in a season. And during his first four years in the NFL with the Buffalo Bills, Goodwin never caught more than 29 passes. He always was known for his accomplishments on the track.

Known for running a 10.24-second 100-meter dash in high school. Known for running a 4.27-second 40-yard dash - the fifth-fastest time ever recorded at the NFL combine. Known for finishing 10th in the long jump at the 2012 Olympics.

These days, Goodwin is known for his accomplishments on the football field.

He leads the NFL with 19.1 yards per catch, he has caught 41 passes for 783 yards through 13 games and, the past four games, has caught 19 passes for 366 yards. That's a whopping 91.5 yards per game.

Part of Goodwin's emergence has to do with Pierre Garcon getting injured and Jimmy Garoppolo becoming the starting quarterback. With Garcon on IR, Goodwin is the 49ers' new No. 1 wide receiver, and Garoppolo is targeting him more than any other player.

“He can run by you if you let him,” Tennessee Titans head coach Mike Mularkey said on a conference call Wednesday morning. Mularkey will face Goodwin and the 49ers Sunday. “He just got more involved with their passing game.”

“Seeing him run full speed is surprising every time I see it,” Garoppolo said. “You don't see many guys like that, even in the NFL. It's great to have on your team that deep threat that guys have to think about. It opens up a lot of other things.”

Goodwin has been a deep threat since he started playing football when he was 9. Now, he's growing into a complete receiver.

“Studying him on tape, there wasn't a ton of routes you could see him do,” 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan said. “We've challenged him since he's been here, running a bunch of different stuff, moving him to different spots, inside the numbers, which he'd really never been before.

“I think his ceiling is extremely high. His hands are much better than people realize. He's a tough guy who's not scared to compete and not scared to go over the middle. There is more to his game than just running.”

Most track stars who try to become football players fail. Renaldo Nehemiah is a famous example. Nehemiah was a world-record holder in the 110-meter hurdles, and the 49ers signed him to play wide receiver in 1982. He caught 43 passes in three seasons and retired in 1985.

What makes Goodwin different from Nehemiah and other track stars who flopped as football players?

“I'm a football player,” Goodwin said at his locker the other day. “A track guy wouldn't stick his head in there on a safety or a linebacker. A track guy is not going to catch the ball over the middle. A track guy will not last five years in the league, going on six.”

While Shanahan attributes Goodwin's growth to improved route running, Goodwin attributes his growth to other things.

“Where I've grown is my knowledge and awareness on the field,” Goodwin said. “Really knowing the defense I'm going against. Knowing the personnel I'm going against. Knowing his technique.

“Where I've really, really grown is off the line of scrimmage, being able to get off the line quickly, take my time, whatever I need to do to beat the defender across from me. In the past - high school, college - I really didn't work on that type of stuff because I had the speed to run around a guy and just go deep. Now, I'm able to set up a defender and kind of put him on a rope, control him.

“When the ball is in the air and I catch it in front of somebody, it's a wrap. In my mind, it's over with. The amount of time I put into being fast and explosive, the type of energy I dedicate toward that, when I get past somebody, I can see the panic in a person when I run past him. And so when I'm looking back for the ball, I get goosebumps.”

Goodwin held out his arm. He had goosebumps just thinking about the goosebumps.

“When you're in a race and you break away from guys, it's a good feeling. It is,” he said. “But I got so accustomed to it, it became like habit. And when something becomes like habit, you don't really appreciate that feeling.

“Whereas football, I've always been so fast that I would outrun a lot of the quarterbacks' arms growing up. So I didn't have opportunities like that. And when they did give me the ball in stride, it was like, ‘Ooh s---, I am about to score.' That feeling, it's hard to explain. Just the fact that people were trying to hit me and knock me down and they couldn't.”

Does Goodwin care that he's the fastest player in the NFL?

“Not at all,” he said. “I don't win money from it. I don't gain anything from being the fastest guy in the league. I really could care less what people say about my athletic attributes.”

In that case, how does Goodwin want to be remembered? When cornerbacks are alone having a cup of coffee, what does he hope they say about him?

“Have you heard about Marquise?” Goodwin said, playing the part of a cornerback.

“Oh yeah,” Goodwin said, responding to himself. Putting on a one-man play. “I played with him. He was fast. He could catch. He could run routes. But that man is a standup guy. Very humble. A genuine dude.”