Bruce Ellington is eager for the 2016 season to get under way.
The 49ers receiver – who’s been just a small part of the team’s offense in his first two NFL seasons – is looking more and more like a vital part of Chip Kelly’s passing game.
The former South Carolina athlete, who played both football and basketball for the Gamecocks, has just 19 catches in his two seasons with San Francisco but is the favorite to be the team’s slot receiver this season. That’s an important role in Kelly’s spread offense, which often runs out of three-receiver sets.
Ellington is off to a good start in training camp and says he’s ready to make a big impact.
“Whatever they throw at me, I’m ready to catch it,” he told reporters after a recent practice.
Kelly, too, has been impressed by what Ellington can do. He says he believes the former basketball point guard has the perfect qualities for the job. Kelly told reporters that a slot receiver has to be able to win one-on-one matchups in the middle of the field and find open seams in the defense.
“He understands how to attack a zone, he understands where the soft parts of a zone are,” Kelly said, according to Taylor Price of 49ers.com. “There’s a correlation between guys who played basketball or have a basketball background and then kind of understanding how to operate in there.
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“So I think he’s got a real good feel for working in the slot.”
Ellington will get his first opportunity to prove it when the 49ers open their exhibition season this Sunday against the Houston Texans.
