New 49ers wide receiver Dante Pettis knows role will take time

SANTA CLARA - When the 49ers traded up to the 44th pick in the NFL draft last Saturday and took Dante Pettis, many people wondered what his role would be next season.

Slot receiver? Punt returner? Both?

The answer might be, ‘neither.’

“Rookie year, obviously I want to play as much as I can,” Pettis said Thursday in the 49ers media room. “But I’ve been around sports enough to know that it doesn’t always work out that way. Sometimes, there’s a learning curve. Sometimes, there’s just someone ahead of you that is better.”

The 49ers have at least three established wide receivers who may be better than Pettis next season: Starters Pierre Garcon and Marquise Goodwin, who are both signed through 2021; and slot receiver Trent Taylor, who is signed through 2020.

Garcon caught 40 passes for 500 yards in eight games last season before fracturing a vertebrae in his neck - he was on pace to have 1,000 yards. Goodwin was on pace to have 1,000 yards, too, until he left the final game of the season with a concussion. He finished 2017 with 962 receiving yards on 56 catches. And Taylor, a rookie, had 430 receiving yards on 43 catches.

All three produced. Given their abilities on offense and their familiarity with 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan’s offensive scheme, Pettis may not see the field next season.

Unless he returns punts.

Returning punts is Pettis’s specialty. He is the NCAA’s all-time leader in punt return touchdowns - he had nine in four seasons. And last season, he led college football with four punt return touchdowns and 20.4 yards per punt return.

“My best attribute (as a punt returner) is my decision-making,” Pettis said. “I’m pretty aggressive in the return game. I try not to let too many balls hit the ground. Try to catch everything.

“I think it’s going to be a little bit of a transition, just because (there are) better players (in the NFL). You can’t just be more athletic than someone or run around somebody. You have to really trust the blocking even more and figure out different ways to get past people.”

Pettis didn’t sound confident he’ll be ready to return punts in the NFL as a rookie. And he may not even want to return them.

“I view myself as a receiver, not really a punt returner,” Pettis said. “Everything I aim for is receiver-wise, not punt-returner-(wise).”

In college, people saw him punt-returner-wise. He established himself his freshman season as a return threat by returning 28 punts for 288 yards and a touchdown.

Pettis didn’t emerge as a receiving threat until his junior season in 2016, when he caught 53 passes for 822 yards, and had 15 touchdown catches. He was Washington’s No. 2 receiver behind John Ross, who later became a first-round draft pick in 2017.

After Ross left for the NFL, Pettis became Washington’s ?No. 1 receiver. That’s when opposing defenses began to focus on shutting him down. And that’s when his production dropped. He finished 2017 with 761 receiving yards and seven touchdown catches. Despite the down the season, Pettis impressed Shanahan with versatility.

“That’s why he said he liked me so much,” Pettis said. “He knows I can move around. I didn’t really have a problem with it. That was one of the things he mentioned to me, that he would like to move me around and see what I can do.”

Pettis does a lot of things. He runs fast enough to be a deep threat on the outside - he ran a 4.47-second 40-yard dash at his pro day. And he’s tough enough to hold up in traffic as a slot receiver. He navigates traffic easily. Punt returners have to navigate traffic.

Pettis even can line up in the backfield as a quasi-running back - he did so last season at Washington. And he can pass. He threw five passes in college, including one for a touchdown in 2016.

What does Pettis take pride in most? What does he see as his best attributes? “My overall athleticism,” he said. “My speed and quickness in and out of breaks. My jumping ability. And how I run routes. I take a lot of pride in that.”

Pettis will have the entire offseason with the 49ers to improve his craft, even though he’s still a student. Washington’s school year ends in June.

Until recently, college seniors who got drafted couldn’t join their NFL teams before graduation. The league changed that rule in October.

The old rule didn’t affect players who went to schools on the semester system, because those schools end in early May, before OTAs and minicamp. But the old rule did affect players who went to schools on the quarter system.

Players such as Pettis. And Solomon Thomas, who went to Stanford. And DeForest Buckner and Arik Armstead, who went to Oregon. Those final three were first-round draft picks, and all of them missed OTAs and most of minicamp their rookie seasons as they finished their college classes. They fell behind with the 49ers.

Pettis won’t. He can begin practicing with the team today in their rookie minicamp. He can begin earning a role.

Any role.

“You just want to play your rookie year, whether that’s on special teams or offense,” Pettis said. “You just want to get on the field.”

Getting on the field would be good.