On May 29, 2024, Jauan Jennings finally got what so many believed he deserved: a new two-year, $15.39 million contract with the San Francisco 49ers. With $10.54 million guaranteed, including a $6.21 million signing bonus and a $5.6 million option bonus due in Year 2, the deal looked like a clear win for one of the NFL’s most physical, underrated wide receivers. Enter 2025, as the dust settles from contract negotiations and training camp battles begin, Jennings finds himself not in a celebratory position of power, but in a strange and uncertain limbo.

Jennings now finds himself in a peculiar state of regression. His role has diminished, his sideline presence has turned volatile, and the head coach of the 49ers, Kyle Shanahan, has stripped him of the intangible privileges he once wielded. The once-rising voice in the locker room has gone curiously quiet, or worse, ignored. Throughout the 2024 regular season, Jennings’ stat line had been underwhelming, but he remained a reliable receiver. Last season he received 77 catches, ranked 26th in the league, ran for a total of 975 yards, ranked 28th, and scored 6 touchdowns for which he was tied him at 35th.

In a competitive business like the NFL, the timing of when and how you negotiate matters almost as much as your talent. Jennings had leverage in early 2024. He could’ve pulled a classic ‘hold-in,’ showed up and withheld effort, something he actually did for a while. He was absent in some OTAs and Minicamp, sparking controversy beyond the grasp of the team. Those days of tension dropped Shanahan’s trust in Jennings’ abilities. He was rewarded with a significant raise over his $3 million RFA tender, but he sacrificed the very leverage that could have earned him either a longer-term deal or an elevated role in the team. But all of that is now gone.

SI‘s beat 49ers journalist, Grant Cohn, weighed in on the issue, and his words suggest a troubling situation for Jennings. Had he held up his end, things could have been different, but now, hope is bleak. Cohn said, “If Jauan is watching, I think it was a mistake not to hold out. Every player who holds out or in, gets what they want. You tried to be the nice guy? You think they’re going to give you everything cause you’re the nice guy? I don’t know how it works that way Jauan. You had all the leverage and you gave it up.”

Furthermore, Jennings, never one to hide his emotions, was visibly frustrated by his limited targets. According to Cohn, he was seen yelling at quarterbacks, clashing repeatedly with Deommodore Lenoir, and even getting pulled from reps after jawing with Shanahan himself. “He’s trying to find other ways to make an impact,” Cohn said. “Like, blocking, starting fights with Deommodore Lenoir, starting fights with people who’ve already gotten paid. Or, yelling at the quarterbacks for not looking at him. “

And while Jennings’ fading on-field role in 2025 has raised eyebrows, the real tension may lie off the field, buried deep in the contract the 49ers handed him just over a year ago. Signed as a reward for past impact, Jennings’ 2024 extension is now starting to feel more like a miscalculation, both financially and in terms of roster construction.

Jauan Jennings has Kyle Shanahan and the 49ers second-guessing their investment

While his fading on-field role is troubling, the heart of the Jauan Jennings dilemma lies off the field and stems from a decision he made back in spring 2024. Instead of holding out or leveraging the restricted free agent tender he received at the second-round level, Jennings chose to take what the 49ers were offering: the two-year, $15.39 million deal with $10.54 million in guarantees, including a $6.21 million signing bonus and a $5.6 million option bonus due in year two. The deal included four void years to help with cap flexibility, but it also handed control back to the 49ers.

At the time, it looked like a solid win for Jennings. The extension added $10.5 million in value over his RFA tender and improved his effective guarantee by $5.65 million. His 2024 cap hit dropped by $2.11 million, a help to the team’s balance sheet and a reward for his hard-nosed play in 2022 and 2023. But now, a year later, that contract looks more like a strategic misstep than a triumph. 49ers insider Grant Cohn offered a blunt assessment on why Jennings’ decision may have backfired. He said, “My best guess? He [Jennings] clearly wants this extension. He went to Adam Schefter or his agent went to Adam Schefter and made a sort of ultimatum demand. The 49ers said, ‘Cool your jets buddy, who are you to make any demands? We’ll try to take care of you, only if you show up to training camp and be a good team player.’ Which he’s doing.”

Jauan Jennings’ current struggles aren’t just a product of competition or changing schemes. They’re the ripple effects of a contract choice that seemed prudent in the moment, but left him exposed. Kyle Shanahan may still admire his toughness. But admiration doesn’t equal usage, and usage is currency in today’s NFL. If Jennings isn’t careful, he may become the textbook case of how being the ‘good soldier’ in contract talks sometimes means becoming the forgotten one in team plans.