Week 2, really, only tooketh away. Very little giveth, outside of, say, Alvin Kamara. And the hits kept coming when we learned, just before Monday Night Football’s tilt between the Falcons and the Eagles, that Deebo Samuel would miss a few weeks with a calf strain.
The injury apparently occurred late enough in Sunday night’s game between the 49ers and the Vikings, so little was made of it in the immediate postgame aftermath. But the news is concrete, now. Deebo—who led the Niners in catches (13) and receiving yards (164)—will miss a few games while his calf convalesces. Before the injury, he’d also has gotten the ball ten times on the ground, and generated 13 yards and a TD.
Now, there are plenty of other wide receivers to consider on waivers this week. I cover Tyler Johnson and Jordan Whittington here, as well as Alec Pierce a bit here—all serviceable and circumstantially-sound pickups. But, in leagues where I own Deebo, I’m making sure to pick up his teammate, Jauan Jennings.
Here’s why.
Pick up Jauan Jennings on waivers
There’s been a lot of talk since Sunday about just how much Nico Collins’s size has helped him become the elite receiver he is. Collins is 6’4″ and 215 pounds.
Jauan Jennings is 6’3″ and 212 pounds! Now, Collins ran a 4.45 40-yard dash, whereas Jennings topped out at 4.72; Collins’s vertical was also 37.5″, with Jennings reaching only 29″. So, to be clear, we are talking about two different athletes here. But I began with Jennings’s size because I believe it relates to so many of his other attractive qualities as a possession receiver for Kyle Shanahan and Brock Purdy.
Have you yet heard of his nickname, Third-and-Jauan? The Niners faithful have dubbed him as such endearingly because of Jennings’s impressive track record of converting third downs. During the 2022 campaign, he had a catch rate of 71.2% on targets in third-and-medium-to-long down and distance situations. Jennings had 19 total receptions on third down that season; a whopping 16 moved the chains. How’s that for a conversion rate.
Even though Jennings’s first downs nearly halved last season (12 total to 23 total in 2022), he didn’t drop a single ball. He was, indeed, a higher-rated receiver in 2023 than in 2022 according to NFL Next Gen Stats: 81.0 as compared to 68.8.
This year, Jennings is averaging his highest-ever yards per target (12.9) and is nearly matching his career-high target share (19.2%) in the Niners offense. But now he has even fewer pass-catchers against whom to compete. He’s already nearly matched half of his total yardage from last season (101 to 265), and has the highest catch percentage of his career (77.2%).
Many attributed Jauan Jennings’s season-long regression in production in 2023 to the spectacular statistical seasons of Christian McCaffrey and Brandon Aiyuk. So far, one of those two is out for who knows how long, and the other seems bashful and rusty after that ridiculous contract saga that took all preseason.
And now Deebo’s gone, too. Some things don’t have to be overly complicated. Where there was once Deebo and McCaffrey, now there is Third-and-Jauan.
He’s a must-add if you’re a Deebo owner; he’s an even savvier snag if you don’t. He’s good—I swear it.
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