Dante Pettis is embracing his weirdness during impressive start with 49ers

Everything about Dante Pettis is just a little bit different, including the impact he’s making on the 49ers practice field during his first week of an NFL training camp.

The rookie receiver is distinguishing himself in the earliest stages, which is something San Francisco hasn’t seen from a young receiver in some time. He’s the team’s most highly-drafted wideout since former general manager Trent Baalke’s famous whiff on 2012 first-round pick A.J. Jenkins.

Pettis has been a handful for San Francisco’s secondary in six training camp practices. He was targeted on three straight snaps by Jimmy Garoppolo to end Wednesday’s session, including a 40-yard touchdown connection on the final play when Pettis burst up the left sideline past second-year corner Ahkello Witherspoon.

Pettis’ first impression as a pro football player has been distinct, matching his unique persona.

“Dante’s a cool guy, definitely a different personality,” fullback Kyle Juszczyk said. “One that you don’t always see in every locker room.”

Pettis has bright blue hair, an affinity for cats, music (he plays the ukulele and guitar), reading, and a unique way of beating defenders on the football field.

“I move weird and I know it,” Pettis said. “People say I got crazy legs.”

Pettis’ legs have a tendency to flair to the side when he runs. His biomechanics are on the other side of the spectrum from his fellow receiver Marquise Goodwin, the former Olympian, who glides up and down the field as though his feet never touch grass.

“The way my body, my legs move, it’s just not extremely normal. It’s not how everybody runs and I know that,” Pettis said.

Pettis has a baby deer-like cadence, not Goodwin’s chiseled build or machine-like running form. But Pettis is efficient nonetheless. He can naturally stagger his steps, speed up and slow down, cut in and out of breaks and use his lateral agility to beat cornerbacks at the line of scrimmage.

Most importantly, he has been good at getting open. But that trait wasn’t always evident when the 49ers were scouting Pettis at Washington. Some considered trading up to draft Pettis questionable given his 6-0, 186-pound frame. San Francisco sent a second- and third-round pick to Washington to move up 15 spots to land Pettis.

“It’s sometimes hard to see in college because they don’t see a lot of man-to-man coverage,” 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan said. “It’s so much zone and you don’t have to be great with your feet when you’re pretty talented because you can beat a lot of guys you’re better than anyways.”

What helped Pettis appear viable as a receiver is what he did as a punt returner. He set the NCAA record with nine punt return touchdowns for the Huskies.

“If you can make guys miss with your feet when you have the ball in your hand, you should be able to do it in routes, too,” Shanahan said. “To combine that with his speed and his hands and his intelligence, which he is very smart, you feel pretty confident that he’s going to continue to get better.”

It’s a bad cliche, but Pettis has made noticeable improvements each day during his first training camp. Well before beating Witherspoon for Wednesday’s practice-ending touchdown, Pettis also beat Richard Sherman on a crossing route when the second-team offense was going against the starting defense. Later, he came down with a sliding grab on a corner route between three defenders.

And Pettis has been on par with the team’s top receivers, Goodwin and Pierre Garçon, during one-on-one sessions where he’s been able to show off his speed.

“He has some long limbs, long arms, long legs and it helps him create space with defenders,” Garoppolo said. “His body moves a certain way and he explodes out of the break and separates a foot from a guy. That’s all you need. As a quarterback, you love to see that.”

Also separating Pettis: that curly hair. It’s currently a bright tinge of blue that only works because he bleached it beforehand. Previously, it was purple and gold to match his college colors. To be sure, Pettis is the only 49er willing to taste the rainbow when it comes to hairstyle. “What would look cool? Blue might be cool. So I dyed it blue and that’s what happened,” he said.

Pettis admitted he didn’t fully embrace his weirdness until college, when he began to realize he wasn’t like his classmates and teammates on the football team. “People were like, ‘Yo, Dante, you’re weird.’ Alright, I guess I’m weird. I just kind of accepted it and that’s when I really went all out.”

Pettis’ ability to go all out, on and off the field, has helped endear himself to his new employers. His work in practice is starting to generate high expectations for his rookie season, where he should have an opportunity to stand out in the rotation of receivers and cement a prominent role for the future.

But even the relatable Shanahan, the second-youngest coach in the NFL who listens to Drake and Lil Wayne, can’t quite grasp some of Pettis’ off-the-field tendencies.

“I still consider myself somewhat young, but that’s definitely the sign of the difference in generations. My age, we didn’t roll like that,” Shanahan said.

“(But) I think guys accept people who are themselves and they’re not trying to be someone they’re not. What’s really cool about Dante, yeah, he’s got the blue hair, yeah he’s artistic. That’s who he is. He doesn’t care what you think. He’s not doing it for someone else. That’s who he is and that’s all you’ve got to be in this league. Just be yourself and guys respect you. He’s the same person every day and he doesn’t care what people think about him. I think people respect him a lot for that.”