San Francisco 49ers WR Jauan Jennings finds a way to make his presence felt whether he’s being targeted or not.
The San Francisco 49ers gave wide receiver Jauan Jennings a new contract on Wednesday, which Jennings earned. An outsider may look at his stats and wonder why in the world you’d pay a wide receiver who only had 19 receptions and one touchdown in 2023.
Anybody familiar with the Niners understands Jennings’ value. Who better than star tight end George Kittle to explain what Jennings brings to the table:
Every single person in the NFL that watches tape, every general manager, every scout, anybody that watches tape will look at Jauan’s film and go, ‘Holy cow, this guy is 1-of-1.’
His mindset and his attitude when he’s on a football field is completely different. He goes to that dark place that Coach Shanahan would talk about with Pierre Garcon. He just is very violent in the way that he plays the game in which you don’t see with all receivers. He will hit defensive ends as hard as he can. He will hit linebackers as hard as he can. He’s not scared of anything. And if you need him to win a 1-on-1 rep, he’s going to win that 1-on-1 rep.
He’s got incredibly strong hands. For a guy that does it all, he runs the routes, he does the run game, he shows up every day loving the game, then you get to game day, and he makes all those plays, that’s somebody that you want to be in your building. That’s somebody that you want to pay. Because he’s going to keep bringing it every day, and he’s going to raise the standard of everybody around him. So when you have a guy like that who does everything, it’s great for us.”
Good things happened to the 49ers when the ball found Jennings last year. Including the postseason, 20 of his 29 receptions resulted in a first down. As Kittle alluded to above, Jennings will make his presence felt regardless if he’s being targeted. That’s the sign of a team player.