All 49ers

Kyle Shanahan Explains Why Jauan Jennings Doesn't Start for the 49ers

Grant Cohn

Sep 22, 2024; Inglewood, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Jauan Jennings (15) flips the ball as he runs into the end zone for a touchdown in the second half against the Los Angeles Rams at SoFi Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images
Sep 22, 2024; Inglewood, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Jauan Jennings (15) flips the ball as he runs into the end zone for a touchdown in the second half against the Los Angeles Rams at SoFi Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images / Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images
In this story:

SANTA CLARA -- The 49ers have an opportunity to evolve and improve on offense.

Wide receiver Jauan Jennings, a backup, is ascending and asserting himself as one of the best players on the team. Meanwhile, fullback Kyle Juszczcyk, a starter, is beginning to age and decline. Now seems like the perfect time to replace Juszczyk with Jennings in the starting lineup and change from primarily a two-wide-receiver offense to primarily a three-wide-receiver offense.

On Friday, I asked Shanahan if he would consider making this fundamental change to his offense.

“I'm always comfortable with Jauan. But if we’re not going 11 (personnel), it has nothing to do with always trying to get our best 11 people out there. Jauan, I think, has been one of our best 11 people since he's been here. That usually more has to do with advantages of 21-personnel and things like that. But it's a good problem to have. I want to get Jauan out there more. He's that type of player. It doesn't always mean that you go totally different with your scheme and everything, but you can always rotate him in more too.”

TRANSLATION: Jennings should start because he's one of the best 11 players on offense, but he doesn't start because Shanahan is more comfortable calling plays when a fullback is on the field. Which means he's rigid and he thinks his scheme supercedes talent. Lots of coaches who run his system do so out of three-wide-receiver formations. The Rams and Bengals are just two examples.

There's no excuse to start Juszczyk over Jennings in 2024.

Get with the times, Kyle.

Published
Grant Cohn
GRANT COHN

Grant Cohn has covered the San Francisco 49ers daily since 2011. He spent the first nine years of his career with the Santa Rosa Press Democrat where he wrote the Inside the 49ers blog and covered famous coaches and athletes such as Jim Harbaugh, Colin Kaepernick and Patrick Willis. In 2012, Inside the 49ers won Sports Blog of the Year from the Peninsula Press Club. In 2020, Cohn joined FanNation and began writing All49ers. In addition, he created a YouTube channel which has become the go-to place on YouTube to consume 49ers content. Cohn's channel typically generates roughly 3.5 million viewers per month, while the 49ers' official YouTube channel generates roughly 1.5 million viewers per month. Cohn live streams almost every day and posts videos hourly during the football season. Cohn is committed to asking the questions that 49ers fans want answered, and providing the most honest and interactive coverage in the country. His loyalty is to the reader and the viewer, not the team or any player or coach. Cohn is a new-age multimedia journalist with an old-school mentality, because his father is Lowell Cohn, the legendary sports columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1979 to 1993. The two have a live podcast every Tuesday. Grant Cohn grew up in Oakland and studied English Literature at UCLA from 2006 to 2010. He currently lives in Oakland with his wife.

Home/News