SANTA CLARA — When Joe Staley caught a deflected pass in the first half against the Denver Broncos on Sunday, the 49ers’ longest-tenured player acted as if he had never been there before.
In fact, the offensive tackle had caught two passes previously in the NFL -- with far better results.
“That was stupid,” Staley said following the 49ers’ 20-14 victory at Levi's Stadium.
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Staley admits he should have simply batted down the deflected pass. Instead, he caught it and was tackled for a 5-yard loss. Then, when the crowd at Levi’s Stadium erupted into cheers, Staley celebrated with a skip back to the huddle.
“The crowd got me hyped up,” he explained.
Staley was recruited to play tight end at Central Michigan. He admits that his hands are bad, so he was moved to offensive tackle. Still, seeing the ball in the air was too tempting for him to pass up.
“You’re not not going to catch it as a lineman,” Staley said. “It’s like telling me, ‘Hey, there’s pizza here. Don’t have a slice.’ I’m going to have a slice. Even though I know it’s probably not good for me, I shouldn’t be eating pizza, but I’m going to do it.”
San Francisco 49ers
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49ers coach Kyle Shanahan said he could only hope that Staley’s fellow offensive linemen levy some kind of fine on him.
“When balls get tipped, we always tell the O-lineman to knock it down,” Shanahan said. “Their reaction is to catch it. So we always show what happens when they do catch it. They usually get their legs taken out, and it’s not fun for them.
“But Joe refuses to fully believe he’s an O-lineman. He’s always trying to show us how athletic he is, and that was his time, so he got excited. But he hurt us. We lost 5 yards. So it was not a smart play.”
Staley had better success on his previous receptions, both of which were designed trick plays during the Jim Harbaugh era to get the ball to him. Staley had a 17-yard reception from Alex Smith in 2011, and a 14-yard catch from Colin Kaepernick in 2013.