{"id":242864,"date":"2026-03-30T03:10:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T03:10:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/242864\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T03:10:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T03:10:15","slug":"why-john-lynch-49ers-signed-mike-evans-over-jauan-jennings-nbc-sports-bay-area-california","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/242864\/","title":{"rendered":"Why John Lynch, 49ers signed Mike Evans over Jauan Jennings \u2013 NBC Sports Bay Area & California"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 49ers are thrilled to welcome Mike Evans<\/a> to the Bay after signing the veteran star wide receiver to a three-year contract during NFL free agency.<\/p>\n

However, San Francisco will miss Jauan Jennings<\/a>, who was a reliable fixture at the position over the last five years, as the deal with Evans makes Jennings the odd man out.\u00a0<\/p>\n

49ers general manager John Lynch<\/a> explained why the team opted to sign Evans over Jennings when speaking to reporters<\/a> at the NFL Annual Meeting in Phoenix.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, that’s hard, because Jauan\u2019s played such good football for us,\u201d Lynch said. \u201cWe made a lot of efforts to try to get Jauan done long-term in the end. Last year, we came up with a one-year deal with some incentives, and Jauan, to his credit, went and earned those. He was a pro.<\/p>\n

\u201cThings worked out with Mike. I thought we got him on a good deal. He really wanted to be a part of our organization, and that’s humbling. \u2029And, we’re fortunate to have a player of his ilk, of his character. And we’re thrilled to have him — our players are.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was no secret that San Francisco and Jennings could never see eye to eye on a long-term deal. And as a result, as Lynch mentioned, Jennings admirably played the 2025 NFL season on a one-year deal with built-in incentives.<\/p>\n

Evans, a six-time Pro Bowl selection and Super Bowl champion, simply met the 49ers where they were — plus, he was very interested in joining the organization anyway.<\/p>\n

Lynch and San Francisco are excited for what Evans brings to the table. But the franchise still has tons of respect for Jennings, believing he\u2019ll end up where he should.<\/p>\n

\u201cJauan\u2019s one of my favorite players and one of Kyle [Shanahan\u2019s] favorite players,\u201d Lynch said. \u201cHe’ll find a good home. And I think Jauan will go play great football for someone. Can’t say enough for what that guy did for \u2026 When that guy stepped between the lines<\/a>, man, he was a presence, and they had to deal with him.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd [he] won us a lot of football games. So, I can’t say enough about him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jennings, whom the 49ers selected with the No. 217 overall pick in the 2020 NFL Draft, recorded 2,581 scrimmage yards and 22 touchdowns with San Francisco.<\/p>\n

So while signing Evans was exciting<\/a> for the franchise, moving on from Jennings was — and still is — no easy feat for Lynch and the 49ers.<\/p>\n

Download and follow the 49ers Talk Podcast<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 49ers are thrilled to welcome Mike Evans to the Bay after signing the veteran star wide receiver…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":242865,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[24514,1736,90113,101,103,102,104,106,105],"class_list":{"0":"post-242864","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-francisco","8":"tag-jauan-jennings","9":"tag-john-lynch","10":"tag-mike-evans","11":"tag-san-francisco","12":"tag-san-francisco-headlines","13":"tag-san-francisco-news","14":"tag-sf","15":"tag-sf-headlines","16":"tag-sf-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242864","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242864"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242864\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/242865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}