Hall of Famer says former Tennessee Vols WR Jauan Jennings is the 49ers player who should be getting the 'big bucks'
Former Tennessee Vols wide receiver Jauan Jennings, who just wrapped up his fifth season with the San Francisco 49ers, had the best year of his professional career in 2024. Jennings, who signed a two-year deal worth $15.4 million before the 2024 season, caught 77 passes for 975 yards and six touchdowns this past season. The […]
Former Tennessee Vols wide receiver Jauan Jennings, who just wrapped up his fifth season with the San Francisco 49ers, had the best year of his professional career in 2024.
Jennings, who signed a two-year deal worth $15.4 million before the 2024 season, caught 77 passes for 975 yards and six touchdowns this past season.
The contract that Jennings signed with the 49ers before the season was a significant raise for the former Vol (Jennings was a seventh round draft pick in 2020, so his previous salary was on the low end for an NFL player), but it still pales in comparison to the deal that his teammate Brandon Aiyuk signed just before the start of the season (four years for $120 million).
NFL Hall of Fame wide receiver Terrell Owens, who spent the first eight seasons of his NFL career in San Francisco, thinks it should be Jennings that's getting the "big bucks" from the 49ers.
"Look at what Jauan Jennings did this past year," said Owens earlier this week (via KNBR). "Going into the season, early on in the season when there was obviously a contract situation going on with Bradon Aiyuk, you saw that Jauan Jennings played like a $30 million receiver. He's the one that probably should've been getting paid the big bucks. But he's put himself in position to make a lot of money down the road. I know he has another year on his contract."
Jennings isn't the most athletic player on the field and he isn't the fastest, but I'm not sure there's a player in the NFL that plays with more effort than him on a play-by-play basis.
The former Tennessee standout absolutely deserves to cash-in with a huge pay day after the 2025 season (or before, if the 49ers can find a way to extend him).
