It wasn’t a move made out of desperation as much as it was common sense.

The last time anyone wearing a 49ers returned a punt for a touchdown was on Sept. 11, 2011, when Ted Ginn Jr., who already had a kickoff return for a touchdown, closed out scoring against the Seahawks with a 55-yard punt return. The 49ers won 33-17.

In the ensuing 246 games, including the playoffs, the 49ers haven’t done it since. It’s a span of 500 returns by 25 different return specialists.

Enter Junior Bergen.

With their 11th and final pick in the NFL Draft, the 49ers selected Bergen out of Montana at No. 252 overall. Bergen, at 5-foot-10, 184 pounds, had many roles with the Grizzlies, but the one that caught the 49ers’ collective eye was a record eight punt returns for touchdowns, an all-time record in the NCAA’s Football Championship Subdivision.

“We’ll throw him in with the receivers and see how that goes,” 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan said at the conclusion of the draft. “But we brought him here to be a returner and try to make the team that way.”

Bergen also has a kickoff return touchdown, and he’s arriving for a season in which the NFL has altered the rules for touchbacks to be brought back to the 35-yard line, which will make teams less inclined to hammer kickoffs deep and instead play coverage.

It’s an interesting move in that the 49ers tend to keep special teams on the down low, with a philosophy of holding their own rather than being a deciding factor in winning and losing.

Although Bergen is not blindingly fast (a 4.52 40-yard dash time at his pro day), Bobby Hauck, his coach at Montana, explained his success this way in a phone interview:

“He’s not going to be the fastest guy on the field. He wasn’t in college, but he’s fast enough and it didn’t stop him from getting into the end zone. He’s got a good feel for what’s going on around him. I would call it point guard ability. He just instinctively knows where everybody is.”

Hauck, who has been a special teams coordinator and handles that duty as the Montana head coach, said he can’t ever remember Bergen fumbling a return — even while playing in the severe weather elements the state has to offer.

“He’s not going to be afraid of a little rain or snow,” Hauck said. “He can catch them in Green Bay. Catching punts with all those people storming on you is a personality trait as well as a skill. You’ve got to be tough-minded to do that.”

According to 49ers general manager John Lynch, new special teams coordinator Brant Boyer and assistant Colt Anderson, both with Montana ties, campaigned for Bergen before the final pick. Boyer’s son Brayton is a kicker at Montana and Anderson is a Grizzlies alum.

“They kept talking about this kid from Montana and really selling him to us,” Lynch said. “And they did a really good job. Ultimately, at the end, it’s like, ‘Are we going to have a chance at free agency if we don’t draft him? Is someone else going to draft him right at the end?”

Upon arrival at Montana after playing in high school locally in Billings, Bergen never imagined he’d become a record-breaking punt returner.

“One of my first punt returns at practice, I go running back and I slipped and fell,” Bergen told MontanaSports.com. “And I was like, dude, I never want to do this again. I just kept catching them, kept catching them, and then after a while, it became so normal. You get so much confidence. And that’s a really big thing in that punt return stuff.”

Five of Bergen’s punt return touchdowns came in FCS playoff games, making him what Lynch called a “sensation” from Billings to Missoula.

“I really, truly love those moments,” Bergen said. “Some people kind of get a little nervous, and I was always the kid, we’re in the driveway and I’m counting down, 3 … 2 … 1 and buzzer beater, or, I’m running down the sideline, like clock’s running out, my dad’s counting down, like stuff like that, two-minute drills.

“I was always the kid to do that stuff, and that kind of just became who I am.”

While returning kicks will be Bergen’s best shot at the NFL, he was a multi-faceted athlete in high school.