Wide receiver Dante Pettis has been inactive for the past two games. It's clear that the San Francisco 49ers coaching staff doesn't view the former second-round pick as the player it had hoped he would become.
ESPN selected Pettis as the 49ers player who the team most likely would like to offload before the upcoming trade deadline.
"Pettis simply doesn't have a role for the Niners anymore," explains ESPN's Nick Wagoner, "and that is unlikely to change without a handful of injuries in front of him. The past two weeks, the 2018 second-round pick was inactive in favor of Kevin White, who had just been activated from the practice squad. It's unlikely the Niners could get much in return for Pettis -- perhaps a pick swap to move up a round or a conditional late-round choice -- but he flashed as a rookie and could benefit from a change of scenery."
Pettis has no receptions on just one target through four games and one start this season. That follows up a disappointing 11-catch, 209-yard, and two-touchdown campaign in 2019.
No one is expecting the 49ers to make a big flashy move before the trade deadline, as they did last season to acquire wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders or in 2017 to get quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo. With the salary cap situation what it is and the season not going as planned, if anything, most expect general manager John Lynch and company to be sellers rather than buyers.
That doesn't mean a trade for roster help is beyond the realms of possibility.
"It's real important for us to keep our draft picks," head coach Kyle Shanahan said this week, "but if we find any situation where the right guy is there, who we think can help us this year, and without risking hurting us in the future, that's something I don't think we'd ever hesitate at, and we'd look forward to doing it. But those things don't always come up."
The NFL trade deadline is on November 3.