The San Francisco 49ers closed a brief second act with Dante Pettis on Thursday, releasing the wide receiver from the practice squad with an injury settlement, via the NFL transaction wire.
Pettis, 30, had only just returned to the organization that drafted him.
San Francisco signed him to the practice squad on September 30, then moved him to practice-squad injured reserve on Wednesday with a calf injury so the club could add former Rams receiver Xavier Smith.
A day later, the team went a step further and released him with a settlement, ending the stay before it produced any regular-season snaps.
The move is a quiet one by October standards, but the name still carries weight in Santa Clara.
Pettis was a second-round pick of the 49ers in 2018, taken out of Washington after a college career built on speed, return ability, and the kind of contested-catch flashes scouts liked in a vertical threat. He arrived with a four-year rookie deal worth about $6.44 million, including a signing bonus of roughly $2.73 million.
The early returns were promising enough that the club tried to trade him rather than simply cut him; when a deal did not materialize, San Francisco waived him and the New York Giants claimed him. He later finished that season on injured reserve after appearing in three games, then hit free agency.
The years since have been a tour of the league’s margins. Pettis signed with the Chicago Bears before the 2022 season and played in every game that year.
He re-signed on a one-year deal the following offseason, was waived in September 2023 after an injury, and returned to Chicago in March 2024. The Bears eventually released him.
He landed on the New Orleans Saints’ practice squad, moved back and forth between that unit and the active roster, was elevated in December, and was later waived again.
In 2025, he appeared in eight games for the Saints and caught nine passes for 127 yards. He joined the Buffalo Bills late in July before circling back to the 49ers this fall.
An injury settlement is the standard mechanism when a practice-squad player is hurt and both sides prefer a clean break to a prolonged stay on the injured list.
Pettis is paid through the agreed window and is then free to sign elsewhere once that window closes, provided he clears the related procedures.
For San Francisco, the corresponding roster math is already done: Smith is on the practice squad, and the receiver room continues to turn over around the players the coaching staff actually expects to use on Sundays.
For Pettis, the release is another short chapter in a career that began with second-round expectations and has since been defined by availability, special-teams value, and the willingness to take practice-squad work. Eight years after the 49ers called his name, the same franchise has let him go again.
