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Jauan Jennings has a real calf injury, which is a real reason he has missed practice starting with the second week of training camp, and who knows how much longer.
But of course, because it involves a 49ers receiver in a moment of negotiation, things are a little more complicated and dramatic than that.
Jennings — set to make $7.5 million this season on the end of a two-year extension he signed in May 2024 — also wants an upgraded contract so much that a July ESPN report suggested he would seek to be traded from the 49ers if he doesn’t get one.
I checked around, and my understanding is that the 49ers feel that the timing is all wrong. They don’t want to give Jennings a big new deal so soon after he signed the last one, a year after giving Brandon Aiyuk a huge contract that the 49ers’ money people almost instantly regretted, and months after signing Brock Purdy to a $265 million deal.
But Jennings is 28, coming off a breakthrough year, and knows that Aiyuk won’t be ready to play for at least the first month of this season, and that Kyle Shanahan wants to direct a nice chunk of the 49ers’ passing game to No. 15. The timing will never be better for Jennings — if he doesn’t get the large bucks now, he probably never will.
It’s a stalemate. And Jennings is injured. Both things are overlapped and blended together, leading to 10 missed practices and no sign of positive momentum for a new contract.
Countdown to Aug. 26
So what’s going on here? It’s multi-layered. In the NFL, you can miss time due to a legitimate injury while you are trying to put pressure on the team to pay you more.
One factor affects the other. The result is that the 49ers don’t know when or if Jennings will return to practice if he doesn’t get a new deal, and Jennings doesn’t know if the 49ers will give him a new deal once and if he returns to practice.
On Saturday, it was evident that Shanahan has no inclination to increase the temperature on the process. In his clearest explanation of Jennings’ situation yet, Shanahan said the injury first cropped up in the offseason; Jennings participated in the team’s first three training camp practices before the known calf injury acted up again. That’s important to note, because a week earlier, Shanahan was cryptic when asked if the contract issue was a reason for the missed practices.
“You can ask him that,” Shanahan said then, “but he tells me it’s his calf, and the calf shows [on the medical testing].”
Because Jennings hasn’t been available to the media in months, I asked Shanahan on Saturday if Jennings has indicated to him that he’s missing practices for business reasons.
“No, not at all,” Shanahan said. “And this actually is why Jauan missed OTAs, because of his calf. It’s the same injury he had last year during training camp, which made him miss a couple weeks during training camp last year. We didn’t get him until the end of training camp last year, and it’s the same thing on the MRI and same thing he is going through, but hopefully, we’ll get him back sooner than later.”
Back at the start of camp, Shanahan said Jennings hadn’t asked to be traded. I believe this is still the case, though obviously that could change swiftly.
And Shanahan’s reference Saturday to Jennings going through this same injury last summer and making it back by the end of camp — for a career year — is a broad sign that the coach is hoping for the same result this year.
So it’s still early on that timetable. But if this goes a few more weeks and Jennings still isn’t practicing by the Aug. 26 roster cutdown to 53 players, that would be worrying for the 49ers in two ways.
Either the injury is worse than it was last year or Jennings has decided not to practice (or play?) until he gets a new deal. Or a combination of both. And he’d still be taking a valuable roster spot on a team that is suffering through yet another injury wave.
I’ve heard that the two sides are not close on a new agreement, which shouldn’t be a surprise after the 49ers’ rounds of cost-cutting last spring set up their new deals with Purdy, Fred Warner, and George Kittle. Beyond that, the 49ers have clearly indicated that there isn’t much more money to pay out, and certainly not at wide receiver, with Aiyuk’s $30 million a year deal already on the books.
Does that mean Jennings will consider copying Aiyuk’s “hold-in” strategy from last year — to show up to team HQ but decline to practice even once he’s healthy? Unclear, but I’m not sure that’s the path. Given the earlier ESPN report, I think the likeliest nuclear scenario would be a public trade request in or around Aug. 26.
The 49ers opened themselves up to this hard-ball tactic when they gave in to Aiyuk (and Nick Bosa before that) — deals I understood at the time and still think are logical. Teams should pay very good players at market rate. Having good players is the point of this.
But I believe the 49ers’ money people have zero desire to establish the Aiyuk resolution as negotiating precedent. And I don't know that Jennings is considered valuable enough to be another exception.
What a compromise could look like
The Jennings camp probably wants a deal for this season and the next few that would put him among the top 20 of receiver salaries ($20 million or higher) over the span of the contract.
But what’s his market beyond the 49ers? We sure haven’t heard about teams eager to trade for him during this period, contrasted to the way we heard murmurings about trade interest in Deebo Samuel several years ago and Aiyuk last year.
On the flip side, the 49ers likely don’t want to give Jennings much of any raise. But they need him this year while Aiyuk is still out, Demarcus Robinson is sitting to start the season with a likely suspension, and before the 49ers know if Ricky Pearsall can be counted on every week. The 49ers also need him because he’s one of Purdy’s favorite targets, one of Shanahan and Lynch’s favorite players, and beloved in the locker room.
I think both sides are lacking ideal leverage. So there will be more squeezing and there should be a compromise by Aug. 26.
What it could look like: The 49ers tack on another year with a deal worth a total of $22 million, with a moderate $5 million guaranteed as a bonus now and the rest lined up as non-guaranteed salary or option bonuses triggered next spring.
This way, Jennings’ camp can call it a one-year, $22 million extension, and suddenly he’s (briefly) a top-20 paid WR, though his chances of getting paid all of that money wouldn’t be super high. And the 49ers can get Jennings into uniform for Week 1 in Seattle and the rest of the season without really extending the payroll too much.
It’s not at all what Jennings wants. It’s not at all what the 49ers want. I think it makes sense in a multilayered, overlapping, and quite convoluted way. It’s a 49ers WR specialty!