In wide receiver news that is not Antonio Brown, where in the world is Dante Pettis? We all know Pettis did not have a great preseason. There were talks of will he start for the 49ers. Did he even want to play football? Head coach Kyle Shanahan said Pettis will need to earn his role on the team.

Last week Pettis showed up on the injury report (groin) and was limited in Wednesday’s practice. He was a full participant in Friday’s practice and was even taking off the injury report for Week 1. And yet not only did Pettis not start in the Tampa Bay game, but he was also only in on two snaps and saw one target, which he caught for seven yards. It was Marquise Goodwin and second-round rookie Deebo Samuel that that got the start.

A lot of people were asking during Sunday’s game where is Pettis and the conclusion was his groin injury. But there hasn’t been any news that he reaggravated his groin. After the game when asked Kyle Shanahan blamed himself for Pettis only being in on two snaps.

“I definitely didn’t plan on Dante getting only two (snaps),” Shanahan said in a conference call Monday. “He should have been in more than that. That starts with me (to) make sure not to let that happen again.” - Kyle Shanahan

Here’s the kicker, Shanahan can blame himself all he wants for Pettis not being out there on more snaps. And maybe they wanted Samuel to start to get a better look at the rookie. But Pettis has gotten himself to the point where he isn’t even a thought in Shanahan’s mind on game day, that’s not good. Again, Shanahan can blame himself, but if Pettis hasn’t done enough to make the coach even think about him on game day, that is an issue.

I was very bullish on Pettis entering the 2019 season and so far, I look like a big dummy. I said he would be the number one wide receiver for the 49ers and I even said he would be top 15 in fantasy. It’s a long road for Pettis to achieve either of those if he isn’t even a thought on game day. Guess we’ll have to wait and see what happens this Sunday vs the Bengals.

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