Junior
Bergen.
Junior
Bergen.
Montana· 5'9"· 184 lb· 4.52s 40
"Eight punt-return touchdowns is the FCS record, and it is also the entire reason a 5-9 slot receiver from Montana heard his name called with the fourth-to-last pick of the 2025 draft."Pre-draft read
Bergen is a compact slot receiver whose real position is returner. He aligns inside, wins on stems and short-area quickness rather than length, and is at his best on manufactured touches — jet sweeps, screens, shallow crossers — where the ball arrives with grass in front of him. He tracks punts cleanly, catches on the move, and sets up blocks with a patience that is rare for a player this twitchy.
The second gear is real but not elite: 4.52 speed with a 1.59 ten-yard split means he separates early and finishes at the same pace defenders do. As a receiver he is a chain-mover who can beat man coverage from the slot; as a returner he is a scoring threat every time the ball hangs. That gap between the two jobs is the entire evaluation.
A Shanahan-style offense that manufactures touches — jet motion, screens, and shallow crossers — paired with a return unit that needs a scoring threat.
Year 1: dedicated punt/kick returner with 8-12 schemed offensive touches. Ceiling: a WR4/5 who wins the return job outright and holds it for a decade.
A team that asks its fifth receiver to be a core gunner and wedge blocker on coverage units, where his frame simply cannot hold up.
His roster value lives or dies on whether the return job is his alone.
Junior Bergen | 2024 Montana highlights
Senior-year reel: slot separation, schemed touches and the return package.
Second punt return touchdown vs. Tennessee State
Shows the patience setting up blocks before hitting the crease at full speed.
99-yard kickoff return touchdown
The one time his long speed held up all the way to the end zone.
Bergen arrived at Montana without a position, played running back as a freshman, moved to receiver midseason, and inherited punt-return duties having never fielded one in a game. What followed was one of the most productive all-purpose careers in Grizzlies history: 145 catches for 1,777 yards, 577 rushing yards, and 4,468 all-purpose yards, sixth-most in program history.
The signature is the return game. He finished with 68 punt returns for 1,136 yards, a 16.7-yard average that stands as a Montana record, and eight punt-return touchdowns — the FCS all-time record. Four of those came in the postseason, including a school-record fifth of his career in an FCS semifinal, and he added a 99-yard kickoff return in 2023. First-team FCS All-American as a senior. The flags were the obvious ones: 5-9 and 184 pounds, an FCS competition level, and a receiver profile built on schemed touches rather than a winning route tree against NFL leverage.
Boards had him as a priority free agent with a specialist path to a roster. San Francisco, a team that had cycled through return men, spent pick 252 on the trait it could not manufacture: a returner who scores.
- 01
Return instincts
Fields punts cleanly with traffic closing, picks his crease a beat before it opens, and turns a two-yard gain into a 30-yard swing without wasted steps.
- 02
Elite return production
Eight punt-return touchdowns is the FCS record, and his 16.7-yard career average is the Montana record over a 68-return sample.
- 03
Short-area burst
4.22 shuttle and 7.00 three-cone at 184 pounds; he changes direction without gathering and separates on option and stem-based routes from the slot.
- 04
Big-moment temperament
Four of his return scores came in the FCS playoffs, and he threw the game-winning two-point conversion in a semifinal.
- 05
Manufactured-touch versatility
Carried 118 times as a freshman running back, then kept a jet-sweep and screen role, so a coordinator can hand him the ball three ways.
- 01
Size limits the route tree
At 5-9, 184 pounds he loses at the catch point against NFL leverage and offers almost nothing outside the numbers or in the red zone.
- 02
Good-not-great long speed
A 4.52 forty means he outruns FCS angles but gets run down by NFL gunners and safeties once the crease closes.
- 03
Competition level
Big Sky corners and coverage units do not test the release package or the ball-security discipline he will face on Sundays.
- 04
Offensive role is narrow
His receiving production leaned on schemed touches, and he never proved he can win consistently against press man on a full route tree.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 4.52sp50
- Vertical
- 36.5inp50
- Broad jump
- 120inp50
- Three-cone
- 7.00sp50
- Shuttle
- 4.22sp50
- Bench
- 17repp50
| Yr | Team | G | Rec | Yds | TD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | Montana | 12 | 21 | 230 | 1 |
| 2022 | Montana | 11 | 17 | 214 | 4 |
| 2023 | Montana | 15 | 59 | 791 | 5 |
| 2024 | Montana | 13 | 48 | 542 | 3 |
| Career | — | 51 | 145 | 1777 | 13 |
Verified season-by-season against the Montana career table; season sums match career totals exactly (51 G, 145 rec, 1,777 rec yds, 68 PR, 1,136 PR yds, 8 PR TD). FCS record for career punt-return touchdowns.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
- Logan FifeQB21%
- Keelan WhiteWR10%
- Eli GillmanRB10%
#5 of 16 tracked contributors · Produced in line with his snap share · CFBD — usage x PPA per tracked player
Practice-squad slot receiver who lives on the roster bubble and contributes in bursts.
Undrafted-caliber size who turned punt-return scoring into a decade-long NFL career.
Specialist-only profile whose roster spot disappears the moment the return production dips.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
San Francisco drafted the returner, not the receiver, and said so out loud — Kyle Shanahan framed him as a return specialist on draft weekend. Bergen signed a four-year deal in May, flashed in the preseason, and then lost the numbers game: waived on August 26 in final cuts, re-signed to the practice squad the next day. He spent the entire 2025 season there without appearing in a regular-season game, and the 49ers brought him back on a reserve/futures contract on January 20, 2026.
The lesson of pick 252 is that a record-setting FCS return résumé buys a camp invitation and a practice-squad job, not a roster spot. In a league where the fifth receiver has to play thirty percent of special-teams snaps as a coverage player, a 184-pound specialist has to be so good on returns that the roster bends around him — and Bergen did not force that in one preseason. He enters 2026 in the same building, with the same job description, and a real chance if the return competition opens.
Data note: Verified season-by-season against the Montana career table; season sums match career totals exactly (51 G, 145 rec, 1,777 rec yds, 68 PR, 1,136 PR yds, 8 PR TD). FCS record for career punt-return touchdowns.