49ers rookie returner Junior Bergen has big goals, out to prove he has the ‘it' factor

New York Times

a day ago

Brent Boyer would hustle to Washington-Grizzly Stadium in Missoula, Mont., last year to watch his son kick for the University of Montana. The then-special teams coach of the New York Jets, Boyer would have been watching the kick return teams anyway but one player, not his son, kept catching his eye.
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The one who kept scoring touchdowns — Junior Bergen.
As in an NCAA Football Championship Subdivision career record of eight punt returns for a score.
'If you want to say he has the 'it' factor, I think he does,' Boyer said.
The San Francisco 49ers, who hold their two-day mandatory minicamp Tuesday and Wednesday, would love to see it. Boyer is their new special teams coach and Bergen, no surprise, was their seventh-round pick. The last time the 49ers had a punt return for a touchdown, Jim Harbaugh was in his first NFL game as a head coach and skinny jeans were all the rage. Ted Ginn Jr. knifed through the middle of the field for a 55-yard return on Sept. 11, 2011, to cap a 33-17 win over the Seattle Seahawks in which Ginn also scored on a kickoff return.
The 5-foot-10, 184-pound Bergen may not be big enough to contribute as a receiver, but that's OK. That's not why the 49ers drafted him.
'We brought him here to be a returner and try to make the team that way,' coach Kyle Shanahan said.
Bergen has his sights set a little bit higher.
'I want to be in the Hall of Fame,' Bergen said. 'That's been my goal since I was a kid. No matter where that's at on the field. My dad, when we were working out, was always talking about gold jackets, so that's what I am going to work to.'
Making the 49ers as a punt returner would be great, but rookie Junior Bergen has a bigger goal: pic.twitter.com/JotzUXz29W
— Vic Tafur (@VicTafur) May 9, 2025
Some may scoff, but his coach at Montana, Bobby Hauck, had a big smile when he heard Bergen tell reporters that last month.
'That didn't surprise me at all,' Hauck said in a phone interview. 'He has always been a confident guy and he understands the level of competition is going to be extreme, but you want guys that have big goals and that's the way he has always been.'
Bergen doesn't have Ginn's great speed — he ran a 4.52 40-yard dash at his pro day — but he weaved for a whopping 16.7-yard average on punt returns and also scored on a kickoff return in college.
BERGEN DOES IT AGAIN! 🤯@bergen_junior has now tied the @NCAA_FCS record for career punt returns with 8️⃣!!#GoGriz pic.twitter.com/f4N3EMkMGy
— Montana Griz Football (@MontanaGrizFB) December 1, 2024
'He's one of the hardest workers on the team,' Boyer said. 'Teams tried to kick away from him all the time and any opportunity that they gave him, he made the most of it. And that's what you're looking for.
'He's a hell of a kid and I think he's going to come in here and he is going to work his tail off and hopefully it works out. Whoever makes the team and whoever doesn't, we're going to make a difference in the return game.'
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Ideally, that would mean kickoff returns as well, with the new rules putting touchbacks on kickoffs at the 35-yard line.
'It's going to be huge,' Boyer said, 'I think you're going to get a minimum of 70 to 80 percent returns. Instead of … what was it last year, like 30 percent? It's going to skyrocket. Nobody's going to give up a 35-yard line drive start, in my opinion.'
Besides Boyer, Bergen had another big fan on the 49ers staff. New assistant special teams coach Colt Anderson once played safety at Montana and also watched Bergen from the stands.
While there were a lot of teams making Bergen free-agent offers late in the draft, general manager John Lynch said both Boyer and Anderson were campaigning hard for the 49ers to go ahead and take him in the seventh round.
'He just has great awareness,' Hauck said. 'He catches the ball clean — in any kind of weather — and secures it, which is very important, but it's his point-guard awareness that makes him special. He knows where everybody is, and he has great feel and acceleration.'
Bergen did play point guard for the basketball team at Billings (Mont.) High, along with football, baseball and wrestling. He was the sixth of nine kids growing up and wore oversized football cleats around the house as a toddler, earning him the nickname 'Cleatus' from his grandfather.
'He was playing quarterback when I first saw him,' Hauck said. 'And he can do everything. It didn't matter which sport, he is a guy you couldn't take your eyes off of. … Wherever you put him on the football field, he just makes plays and gets yards.'
Bergen feels like he was born for the moment, and the next moment is upon him — at these practices and then training camp when it starts in six weeks.
'There's a saying that big-time players make big-time plays in big-time games,' Bergen said. 'I like to think of myself as a big-time player. When those big-time moments come up, I try to make a play and be at my best.'