All 49ers

Why Jauan Jennings Will Have a Breakout Season

The more Jennings produces this year, the better the compensatory pick the 49ers will receive when he leaves.

Grant Cohn

Dec 3, 2023; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Jauan Jennings (15)
Dec 3, 2023; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Jauan Jennings (15) / Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports
In this story:

Every season, it seems at least one player on the 49ers who's in a contract year plays out of their mind.

Last season, it was Brandon Aiyuk. A couple years before him, it was Deebo Samuel. And a couple years before him, it was Arik Armstead. All three players raised their game significantly right before it was time to get paid. And this year, Jauan Jennings will do the same.

Truthfully, Jennings raised his game in the playoffs, particularly in the Super Bowl, when he caught five passes, scored one touchdown and threw a touchdown pass. That was his breakout performance. Now he's a restricted free agent, and he will stay with the 49ers for one more season unless a team makes him an offer and gives the 49ers a second-round pick, which seems unlikely.

Next year, Jennings will be an unrestricted free agent and the 49ers probably won't re-sign him -- he's good enough to start on another team and will get paid accordingly. In the meantime, the 49ers need to get their money's worth in his final season with the team.

The more Jennings produces this year, the better the compensatory pick the 49ers will receive when he leaves, so it's in their interest to give him the ball. In addition, the 49ers were going to release Kyle Juszczyk this offseason until he took a pay cut, so it seems his playing time could decrease while Jennings' increases, which would be smart because Jennings is much more dangerous than Juszczyk at this point in their careers.

Look for Jennings to catch more than 40 passes next season.

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