Jauan Jennings can make his new contract look like a complete bargain for the San Francisco 49ers
Jauan Jennings' new deal with the San Francisco 49ers carries an average annual value of $7.7 million. That's hardly an eye-popping number by today's standards and, per Spotrac, it ranks only 38th among wide receivers. But, going purely by the numbers the 2020 first-round pick has produced during his career with the Niners, it might […]
Jauan Jennings' new deal with the San Francisco 49ers carries an average annual value of $7.7 million.
That's hardly an eye-popping number by today's standards and, per Spotrac, it ranks only 38th among wide receivers.
But, going purely by the numbers the 2020 first-round pick has produced during his career with the Niners, it might seem to be an expensive price for them to pay to keep Jennings around through 2025.
Jennings has 963 yards receiving and seven touchdowns for his career. Five of those touchdowns came in 2021, when he first established himself as the Niners' third wide receiver behind Brandon Aiyuk and Deebo Samuel. He spent his rookie year on the practice squad.
During the regular season last year, Jennings had a career-low 265 yards and a touchdown before exploding in the postseason. Despite his playoff efforts, there may be some questioning why the 49ers place such a value on Jennings' contributions given the modest production over his three seasons on the active roster.
One of one
For those people, tight end George Kittle has a detailed explanation.
Said Kittle at a press conference on Wednesday: "I think every single person in the NFL that watches tape, every GM, every scout, anybody that watches tape they look at Jauan’s film and they’re like ‘holy cow, this guy is one of one’.
"His mindset, his attitude, when he’s on the football field is completely different. He goes to that dark place that coach Shanahan will talk about with Pierre Garcon. He is just very violent in the way that he plays the game, which you don’t see in all receivers. He will hit defensive ends as hard as he can, he’ll hit linebackers as hard as he can. He’s not scared of anything, and if you need him to win on a one-on-one rep, he’s gonna win on that one-on-one rep.
"He’s got incredibly strong hands. He runs the routes, he does the run game, he shows up every day loving the game with a great attitude and then you get to the gameday and he makes all those plays, that’s someone that you want to be in your building, that’s someone that you want to pay, that’s someone you want to reward because he’s just going to keep bringing it every single day and he’s going to raise the standard of everybody around him. When you have a guy like that that does everything, it’s great for us."
A clutch performer
Jennings efforts in run blocking have often served as his most visible contributions to the 49ers' success. He is an extreme irritant for defenses in that area of the game, playing right through the whistle and even driving opponents off the field and into the bench.
Frequently annoying opposing defenders to the point where they give up roughness penalties, Jennings' aptitude as a run blocker is backed up by the numbers. Among receivers with at least 100 run blocking snaps, Jennings ranked third in Pro Football Focus run block grade in 2023. He had the highest grade of any receiver on zone blocking plays.
Beyond his play in the blocking game, Jennings has consistently delivered in the clutch for the 49ers.
Per nflindex.com, over the last three seasons Jennings is second in success rate among all wide receivers on third down, with 61.4 percent of his receptions gaining the required yardage. He is 11th in Expected Points Added per play over the same period.
Jennings came up huge in overtime wins over the Cincinnati Bengals and Los Angeles Rams in 2021, the latter of which clinched the Niners’ place in the playoffs, but his clutch impact was magnified as the 49ers went all the way to the Super Bowl in the 2023 season.
A Super Bowl showcase
He had five catches for 61 yards in the Divisional round win over the Green Bay Packers and a clutch diving third-down grab in a quieter effort in the Niners' historic NFC Championship Game comeback against the Detroit Lions, but it was Super Bowl 58 that saw Jennings, albeit in a losing cause, demonstrate his potential to develop into an even bigger weapon for the 49ers.
Using his frame and route-running savvy to beat the press coverage of Joshua Williams to pick up 17 yards on third down and then displaying great burst out of his break and physicality after the catch to barrel into the endzone on a slant route, Jennings was crucial in putting the 49ers ahead in the fourth quarter. On the 49ers' final drive of regulation, he and Purdy displayed great timing on a 23-yard gain that saw him making a leaping reception, helping set up a Jake Moody field goal.
Sadly for the 49ers, Jennings' contributions will go down as just a footnote in Super Bowl history, but they served to illustrate that, between his size, his ability to defeat press coverage, his considerable prowess at the catch point and outstanding rapport with Purdy, he is a receiver with the skill set to make a more frequent influence for San Francisco in the years to come.
His position on the depth chart on a team with an arsenal of dynamic passing game weapons that was swelled by the 49ers taking Ricky Pearsall and Jacob Cowing in the draft figures to complicate Jennings' hopes of playing a greater role in the attack.
Yet Jennings does not turn 27 until next month, meaning the 49ers will have him under contract for the years that are typically considered a player's prime. The playoffs pointed Jennings being an upward trajectory. If that continues and he manages to gain greater prominence in the passing game, his contract will soon look to be an absolute steal.
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