© San Francisco 49ers | 2020 Sep 2
With the return of Richie James Jr. to the active roster this week, the 49ers made room by cutting Mohamed Sanu after just three games and one catch. The move was curious to some, especially considering the likes of Dante Pettis, who has done very little throughout his three-year career and doesn’t have a single catch this year, remains on the roster for now.
49ers beat writer Matt Barrows was in the camp of being surprised it was Sanu and not Pettis who got cut, but threw out two reasons why that was probably the case on KNBR.
“The 49ers had six wide receivers in uniform on Sunday, three of them didn’t have a catch,” Barrows told Tolbert, Krueger & Brooks. “There’s a glut there, and the glut is going to get even bigger when Richie James comes off IR. So they had to make a move. I thought it may have been Pettis. Pettis is obviously younger and at least has a role on special teams, Sanu didn’t play any special teams at all.
“The other reason is that Pettis was a second-round draft pick that the head coach really liked and went up in the draft to get. Now we have a trade deadline coming up at the end of the month, I full expect Pettis’ name is bandied about as a possibility. I don’t think they’d get anything close to the second rounder they spent on him, but I think cutting him would be giving him away for free, and they’re going to see if they can get something in return.”
Listen to the full interview below.
