The San Francisco 49ers are entering their third season with Kyle Shanahan as their head coach. The 49ers head coach believes that wide receiver Dante Pettis is going to be a crucial player for their offense this year.
Per Eric Branch in the San Francisco Chronicle:
“I have been hard on Dante,” Shanahan said. “But if anyone knows me, I am the hardest on people that I believe in. And I do believe in him a lot. And I’m always going to be probably a little disappointed because I think he can be very good. And it’s important to our team that he is.”
San Francisco selected Pettis with the 44th overall pick in last year's draft. The receiver out of Washington caught 27 passes for 467 yards and five touchdowns in his rookie season.
For Pettis, the young wideout didn't consistently crack the starting lineup until Week 10 of the 2018 season. In his last six games that he played in, Pettis brought in 24 receptions for 371 yards and four touchdowns.
Heading into the 2019 season, the 49ers are hopeful that the second-year receiver will become the team's top passing target at the receiver position. This offseason, the 49ers decided to move on from Pierre Garcon—showing their confidence in Pettis now and in the future.
Aside from Pettis, the 49ers are expected to deploy Marquise Goodwin and rookies Deebo Samuel and Jalen Hurd at receiver. Additionally, San Francisco has one of the NFL's best tight ends in George Kittle.
With the return of Jimmy Garoppolo in 2019, Shanahan is expecting to see a much-improved passing offense this season. For that to happen though, they are going to need Pettis to have a breakout season.
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