The San Francisco 49ers have high hopes for second-round draft pick Dante Pettis, whom the team traded up to acquire. He has produced just seven receptions for 108 yards with a touchdown in his seven game appearances and two starts.
Pettis' development has been hindered by injuries, as has been the case for so many 49ers players. He went down with a knee injury during the team's Week 4 contest against the Los Angeles Chargers and missed the next three games.
"We were real excited to get Dante and still very excited to have him," head coach Kyle Shanahan told a nearly empty room of reporters on Friday (many are traveling to the East Coast for Sunday's game). "I feel like this last week or so is the first I've seen him get back to the form I thought he was at around the Minnesota game, which was the first game of the year."
Pettis recorded two receptions for 61 yards and his lone touchdown of the season in that game. He has yet to come close to that yardage total since. The 49ers head coach went on to explain why.
"He was very ready to go at the beginning of the year," Shanahan continued. "[Marquise Goodwin] got hurt versus Minnesota. I thought Dante was going to have a huge (Week 2) game against Detroit. He got banged up throughout that game, and it really set him back. He tried to play through it for a couple of weeks. It ended up putting him down for about a month.
"He's kind of been finding his way back since then. This last month, where he has gotten healthier, he's gotten better each week, but he hasn't fully gotten back to where he started out. I see it a lot more in practice now.
"I am expecting a lot of big things out of Dante, and I want him to be further along than he is. Unfortunately, he's had some setbacks. I feel better about where he is now, and I will be surprised if he doesn't get better each week here all the way up to Week 16."
Have the setbacks affected Pettis' confidence during his rookie season?
"Dante is never too high or too low," Shanahan said. "He's a confidence guy. It's hard to be real confident when you're not feeling right, and most of this year, he hasn't.
"I hope we can get him out there. I think he is starting to feel better so that confidence will obviously get better the better he feels. Hopefully, we can get him some opportunities to make some plays. If he does make those plays, I think his confidence will continue to get better."