{"id":287052,"date":"2026-04-26T17:41:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-26T17:41:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/287052\/"},"modified":"2026-04-26T17:41:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T17:41:08","slug":"the-san-francisco-49ers-insulted-former-vols-wr-jauan-jennings-with-the-way-they-replaced-him-during-the-2026-nfl-draft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/287052\/","title":{"rendered":"The San Francisco 49ers insulted former Vols WR Jauan Jennings with the way they ‘replaced’ him during the 2026 NFL Draft"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Tennessee Volunteers wide receiver Jauan Jennings won\u2019t be returning to the San Francisco 49ers in 2026. The 49ers drafted Jennings\u2019 \u201creplacement\u201d in the 2026 NFL Draft.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\"Tennessee
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSergio Estrada-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Former Tennessee Vols wide receiver Jauan Jennings almost certainly won\u2019t be returning to the San Francisco 49ers in 2026. <\/p>\n

Jennings, who spent the first six seasons of his NFL career with the 49ers, is still a free agent after failing to work out a longterm agreement with San Francisco. <\/p>\n

Since Jennings is still a free agent, there\u2019s been speculation that the 49ers could circle back to the former Vol at some point this offseason. <\/p>\n

But that no longer looks to be a possibility after the 49ers drafted Jennings\u2019 replacement during the 2026 NFL Draft, and kind of insulted him in the process. <\/p>\n

San Francisco 49ers draft their Jauan Jennings replacement<\/p>\n

The 49ers selected Ole Miss wide receiver De\u2019Zhaun Stribling in the second round of the draft. <\/p>\n

And they quickly made it clear that he\u2019s the replacement for Jennings. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think everyone knows how good of a blocker Jauan was, or is, and how big he\u2019s been for us in that way,\u201d said 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan while discussing Stribling. \u201cSo we have a hole without that, and this guy definitely could fill that\u2026I really fell in love with him as a route runner, how fast he is, how big, how good his hands are, how physical he played.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Athletic described the 49ers\u2019 selection of Stribling early in the second round as a \u201creach\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe 49ers opened Day 2 with a surprising pick, taking Stribling even though there were much higher-rated consensus board receivers available, including (Denzel) Boston,\u201d wrote The Athletic\u2019s Saad Yousuf<\/a>. \u201cStribling was the 13th wide receiver on the consensus board, but the 49ers made him the sixth player taken at his position.\u201d<\/p>\n

San Francisco likes Jennings, but they clearly don\u2019t believe he\u2019s a premier player in the NFL \u2014 simply because he lacks some of the attributes of other top receivers in the league. <\/p>\n

Jennings, though, is a winning player who earned the respect of his superstar teammates with the way he plays the game with relentless effort. The former Vol may not be a burner, and he won\u2019t put up crazy stats, but he\u2019s undoubtedly one of one. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnyone that watches tape, they look at Jauan\u2019s tape and go \u2018holy cow, this guy is one of one,\u2019\u201d said 49ers tight end George Kittle<\/a> in 2024. \u201cHis mindset and his attitude when he\u2019s on a football field is completely different. He goes to that dark place that Coach (Kyle) Shanahan talks about\u2026he is just very violent in the way that he plays the game. Which you don\u2019t see in all receivers.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe will hit defensive ends as hard as he can. He will hit linebackers as hard as he can. He\u2019s not scared of anything. And if you need him to win a one-on-one rep, he\u2019s going to win that one-on-one rep. Incredibly strong hands. For a guy that does it all, he runs the routes, he does the run game, he shows up every day loving the game with a great attitude. And then you get to game day and he makes all those plays. That\u2019s someone that you want to be in your building.\u201d<\/p>\n

No disrespect to Stribling, he may end up being a terrific player in the NFL, but the 49ers know what they had in Jennings, and yet they still don\u2019t value him the way they should. <\/p>\n

This is another example of an NFL team getting caught up in measurables and metrics instead of intangibles. <\/p>\n

Measurables and metrics are important. But when the game is on the line, do you want the player who runs the fastest, or do you want the player who\u2019s willing to die on the field to make the play? <\/p>\n

I know what my answer is. And now we know what the 49ers\u2019 answer is, too. <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\"Tennessee\t\t<\/p>\n

Tennessee Volunteers News<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\tFormer Vol gets drafted and then hints at the reason he transferred away from Tennessee and it\u2019s a tough look for the Volunteers\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

A former Vols defender was selected in the 2026 NFL Draft and hinted at the reason why he transferred away from Tennessee. And it\u2019s a tough look for Josh Heupel and the Volunteers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Tennessee Volunteers wide receiver Jauan Jennings won\u2019t be returning to the San Francisco 49ers in 2026. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":287053,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[101,103,102,104,106,105,16064],"class_list":["post-287052","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news","tag-tennessee-vols"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287052","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=287052"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287052\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/287053"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=287052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=287052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=287052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}