Paying Brock Purdy and letting a slew of free brokers go away didn’t remove all of the 49ers’ monetary hurdles this offseason.
Huge receiver Jauan Jennings needs to receives a commission, too. Once more.
A league supply confirmed that Jennings is seeking to parlay a career-best season into monetary achieve as he enters the ultimate season of a two-year contract extension.
If the 49ers usually are not keen to award him one other extension earlier than coaching camp, Jennings would search a commerce, as first reported Monday morning by ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
Subsequent Tuesday, July 22, is when all veterans should report back to 49ers coaching camp or threat accruing every day fines. Jennings is just not anticipated to carry out of camp, nor be completely satisfied if he does attend, in accordance with Schefter. Jennings’ agent, Drew Rosenhaus, declined remark.
Jennings’ physicality has been an indicator of the 49ers’ offense the previous 4 seasons, whether or not his 6-foot-3 body is making third-down conversions (“Third-And-Jauan”) or coming by means of with big-time manufacturing, together with within the 2023 season’s Tremendous Bowl defeat to Kansas Metropolis.
“I love him. He’s a beast on the field,” 49ers all-time nice Jerry Rice mentioned final week of Jennings.
Two years in the past, Jennings was a restricted free agent when he agreed to a two-year, $15.4 million extension; he has a $1.2 million base wage this season and counts $4.3 million towards the wage cap.
The 49ers have $48 million in wage cap area, second solely to the New England Patriots ($61 million), in accordance with the NFL Gamers Affiliation.
Jennings, 28, racked up 975 yards and 6 touchdowns on 77 receptions final season as he turned the 49ers’ de facto No. 1 huge receiver as soon as they misplaced Brandon Aiyuk to an October knee damage.
Aiyuk didn’t take part in coaching camp or the preseason till agreeing to an enormous extension (4 years, $120 million) final Aug. 29; he’s recovering from right-knee reconstruction and his availability for the beginning of this coming season is unclear.
A minor calf damage saved Jennings off the follow discipline because the 49ers concluded their offseason program a month in the past, and coach Kyle Shanahan didn’t count on Jennings to overlook camp due to the calf.
Jennings is poised to enter this season as Purdy’s prime huge receiver after the 49ers paid their quarterback a franchise-record $265 million extension two months in the past. Additionally main their receiving corps are 2024 first-round decide Ricky Pearsall and 2025 free company acquisition Demarcus Robinson, who might be dealing with a NFL suspension firstly of this season after not too long ago pleading no contest to a misdemeanor
“If you ask Jauan, he says ‘I’m number one’. And that’s his mindset and that’s why we love Jauan,” offensive coordinator Klay Kubiak mentioned in Might. “That’s how he sees himself. He sees himself as a dominant player. You guys all saw last year when he got more chances, he played really, really well.”
Final season, Jennings got here inside 25 yards of his first 1,000-yard season, solely to attract an ejection within the season-ending loss at Arizona after tussling with Cardinals cornerback Sean Murphy-Bunting in the long run zone. “All I did was pancake the guy. Played football,” Jennings mentioned afterward of an incident that didn’t draw a high-quality. “Took him and laid him on his back. Tried to get up, and he wouldn’t let me get up. Next thing you know, they’re just looking at me like I’m the bad guy.”
Jennings was on his manner towards one other high-production output that recreation, with 52 yards on seven catches earlier than his second-quarter ejection.
It’s not simply his bodily nature and chain-moving means that’s helped Purdy and the 49ers’ offense in current season. Jennings has big-game means. He had 11 catches for 175 yards and three touchdowns because the 49ers misplaced final September’s go to to the Los Angeles Rams.
Jennings was in competition for Tremendous Bowl MVP as he each caught a landing go (from Purdy) and threw one (to Christian McCaffrey) within the 25-22 additional time defeat to Kansas Metropolis on the finish of the 2023 season.
Chosen within the 2020 draft’s seventh spherical out of Tennessee, Jennings didn’t play as a rookie, with a hamstring damage foiling plans for him to come back off the follow squad. He’s anticipated to host his fourth annual youth soccer camp this Friday at his alma mater, Blackman Excessive in Murfreesboro, Tenn.
