49ers: Dante Pettis is motivated after healthy scratch in the Super Bowl

San Francisco 49ers’ wide receiver Dante Pettis is motivated after his Super Bowl scratch.

San Francisco 49ers‘ wide receiver Dante Pettis entered the 2019 season looking to build off of an impressive rookie season that was hampered by injury.

Going into 2019, 49ers fans were exceedingly high on a player who many thought would break out amongst an inexperienced receiving corps. He certainly shouldn’t have had any shortage of opportunities at the very least.

Unfortunately, Pettis’ 2019 season turned disastrous as he soon found himself falling out of favor with the coaching staff and wound up in head coach Kyle Shanahan’s dog house.

As a result, Pettis played in just 11 games making 11 catches for 109 yards. And as the season went on, his role in the offense only decreased.

So much so that the former Washington star didn’t step on the field once in any of the team’s three postseason games. In fact, Pettis was made a healthy scratch for the 49ers’ Super Bowl LIV matchup against the Kansas City Chiefs.

That was the final straw for Pettis.

Feeling spurned and determined to salvage his 49ers career, Pettis enters the 2020 season looking to turn over a new leaf. That’s the sentiment he shared with reporters following Friday’s practice.

"“If that doesn’t change the way someone approaches the offseason, they don’t really want to be in the NFL. There’s not too many things worse than that, football-wise, that could get you going — being inactive for the Super Bowl. That was kind of like the final straw, you could say.”"

Dante Pettis is determined to rediscover his role in the 49ers’ offense.

The 44th overall selection in the 2018 NFL Draft, many saw Pettis as a future building block of the offense with sky-high potential. But perhaps due to his own shortcomings, he’s yet to come close to reaching his ceiling.

He’s determined to change his fortunes in 2020, however. And he seems to be slowly winning over the support of the coaching staff again.

Shanahan has been praising Pettis this summer and on Thursday complimented the young wideout on his demeanor, aggression, and overall game. The work he’s been putting in this summer is evident and he’s ready to step back into a regular role on the offense.

That’s good news for a 49ers team that is dealing with a few injuries at the receiver position — most notably to the likes of Deebo Samuel and Jalen Hurd.

Samuel will miss the first few weeks of the season, but Hurd will be sidelined for the second consecutive year. The 49ers will certainly benefit from a player like Pettis stepping up in their absence.

And as long as he remains on track, he should once again be given another opportunity to find success with the organization.