Dante Pettis was in rare company statistically as a rookie

It’s easy to get excited about the potential of his second season in the NFL

Dante Pettis needs to stay healthy. If he is on the field for 16 games, the San Francisco 49ers have a weapon that few teams have. I still stand by him showing #1 traits as a rookie. That doesn’t mean Pettis is the next Jerry Rice. He confirmed everything you look for in a wide receiver.

Statistically, Pettis is in great company. Mick Smiley of Cat Scratch Reader had an excellent idea for D.J. Moore, and I wanted to see how Pettis stacked up. Smiley coined the term “P.I.P.E,” which stands for potential, impact, production, and efficiency.

Potential – Drafted in the first or second round

Impact – Averaged at least 14 yards per reception as a rookie

Production – Registered at least 700 receiving yards as a rookie

Efficiency – Averaged at least nine yards per target as a rookie

I’m fudging the production number here for Pettis. He had 467 yards on 45 targets. Everyone else you’ll see on this list had at least 74 targets. With 30 more targets, I’m going out on a limb and saying Pettis would have eclipsed 700 yards.

Pettis was selected in the second round. Whether we want to admit it or not, there’s more pressure on players that are drafted early to produce. So I think it’s crucial that these criteria are there. Before we get into the rest of Pettis’ numbers, here are the players who qualified for “P.I.P.E” over the last 15 years.

Pettis averaged 17.3 yards per reception as a rookie. That would put him third on this list.

The final piece would be efficiency. Pettis averaged 10.4 yards per target, which would put him fourth on the list. While Moore is squeaking by the filters Smiley made, Pettis is passing with flying colors.

While it helps that Pettis will be in a receiver friendly system, he does plenty of heavy lifting himself. Of his 27 receptions, 14 of those went for over 10 yards, and 19 of those catches resulted in first downs. Pettis is efficiency. The long touchdown didn’t inflate his numbers against the Seattle Seahawks. There is a lot of consistency to Pettis. That’s why it’s easy to get excited about what his sophomore year will look like.