Expectations were high for San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Dante Pettis as he headed into his second NFL season. Some went as far as to predict that he would become a breakout fantasy football star within head coach Kyle Shanahan's offense.
Pettis finished last season with a pedestrian 11 receptions for 109 yards with two touchdowns. His receptions to targets percentage dropped from 60 percent in 2018 to 45.8 percent in 2019.
Quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo didn't target Pettis after November 11, 2019, and the young receiver didn't catch a pass after Halloween night.
It sounds like Pettis is looking to prove he can do so much more.
Pettis reported to training camp a different player, and on Tuesday had one of his most impressive practices with the 49ers, hauling in five catches over the middle during 11-on-11 drills. Two of those passes came from Garoppolo, who seems to be rebuilding his rapport with the third-year receiver.
"I really wanted to see how much he prepared before getting here," Shanahan said Thursday on KNBR. "You usually can tell that just by how the guys run, and really how they look when they get back."
Pettis made a point to seek out Shanahan as he arrived at the team facility along with the rest of the veterans. He may have wanted to do so earlier, but NFL rules prohibited players from meeting face-to-face with coaches due to the coronavirus pandemic.
"Just getting with Dante right away, he came into my office the first day he got back, and we just got to sit down for a little bit, and talk and catch up," Shanahan said. "You could just tell, looking at him, that he had put the work in, in the weight room. The way he was talking, you could tell he was a lot more confident, and he was ready to show us that he had put in the work.
"And as soon as we got out there (on the practice field), you could see, just the way he was coming off the ball, getting in and out of his cuts, just his mentality that I think started with work, and you could see it go over to the field.
"I think he's had a lot more confidence coming in, and then, hopefully, that will pay off for him this year."
Shanahan spoke with reporters about three hours before jumping on KNBR and expressed many of the same thoughts regarding that Tuesday practice.
"I know he got a lot of balls and a lot of opportunities, but it wasn't just that," Shanahan added via the video conference call. "It was his demeanor, the way he played, the aggression and his routes and everything. I've been very pleased with Dante so far."
You can listen to the entire conversation with Shanahan below.