Jauan Jennings is Primed for a Breakout Season for the 49ers

Jauan Jennings has made a noticeable impact for the 49ers during OTAs.

Stock in Jauan Jennings is soaring.

The guy has been making an impact throughout the entirety of offseason practices. It’s clear that he is still riding the momentum and building upon it from how his season ended. Jennings is impossible not to notice right now. He even has Charvarius Ward looking at him in a new light.

“Jauan kind of surprised me a little bit,” said Ward. “He’s got a lot more talent than I thought he had. He’s a great route runner… He knows how to work his leverage.”

Quite the praise from Ward here with Jennings. I’d imagine he underestimated Jennings on some matchups during practice. For Ward to say that, it just continues to rise the stock of Jennings. 2021 he was deemed the new Kendrick Bourne with his superb situational catches. But he might even be better than Bourne.

Jennings is primed for a breakout season.

Route running and separation have been the consistent details used to describe his game. Those are by far the top skills a wide receiver needs to be dominant. Doesn’t matter how fast you are or how tough you are if you cannot run crisp routes and separate from your defender. Jennings can now make Kyle Shanahan’s job easier and even give Jennings more responsibility since he knows he can get open.

“I’m extremely confident in Jauan,” said Shanahan. “I think if anyone watched our games at the end of last year, not many people covered him. He got open, he had aggressive hands, he got up the field, he blocked well. Jauan was a guy we had a lot of hope for coming into stuff. He had some setbacks with injuries, but once he got healthy and he got his opportunity when Mo [former WR Mohamed Sanu Sr.] went down last year he took off.”

If Jennings lives up to the hype, then it is only going to make the transition for Trey Lance easier. The 49ers will be incredible offensively. They’ll still be a ground-and-pound offense, but it makes a world of a difference to give Lance another polished player. 

Now, it is just OTAs, so not everything should be read into fully. Still, it is impossible not to see the ascension of Jennings since about the 2021 midseason. He hasn’t lost that electric energy he’s been on. It’s tough to doubt he won’t be a strong role player this season and better than last. There is WR2 potential written over Jennings. It’s on him to see if he can get there.

“And what's cool about Jauan," Shanahan said, "he's got some unique running styles, but just watch him, he separates more than probably all the other guys.”