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49ers Wide Receiver Jauan Jennings Could Hold Out this Offseason

Jauan Jennings deserves a new deal, and he just might hold out to get it.
Grant Cohn|
Jan 5, 2025; Glendale, Arizona, USA; San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Jauan Jennings (15) reacts after a fight against the Arizona Cardinals in the first half at State Farm Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images
Jan 5, 2025; Glendale, Arizona, USA; San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Jauan Jennings (15) reacts after a fight against the Arizona Cardinals in the first half at State Farm Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images | Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

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San Francisco 49ers

Jauan Jennings deserves a new deal, and he just might hold out to get it.

Jennings has one year left on his contract and he's scheduled to get paid $9.5 million. He negotiated this deal last year when he was coming off a season in which he caught just 19 passes. This season, Jennings replaced Brandon Aiyuk as the starting X receiver after Aiyuk went down for the season with a gruesome knee injury. And in 15 games, Jennings caught 77 passes and scored 6 touchdowns. In addition, he was Pro Football Focus' 13th-highest-graded wide receiver in the NFL.

Time for a serious raise.

In 2023, Aiyuk caught 75 passes and scored 7 touchdowns, and then he held out all offseason. He had one year left on his rookie deal that was fully guaranteed and would have paid him more than $14 million, and he still held out. And he eventually got a four-year, $120 million contract from the 49ers just before the regular season started.

If Aiyuk held out, why wouldn't Jennings?

Clearly, he's not worth $30 million per season, because he's not explosive. He's one of the slowest wide receivers in the NFL while Aiyuk is a downfield threat.

And yet, Jennings produces in his own way. He's one of the best receivers in the league at making contested catches -- only Terry McLaurin and Drake Londom made more contested catches than Jennings this season. Plus, he's an elite blocker. And he's one of Brock Purdy's favorite targets.

The 49ers might have to pay him some serious cash or trade him this offseason. He has outperformed his current contract.

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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.

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