David Levine
Posts: 81217
Joined: 7/14/2007
From: Las Vegas
Status: offline
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"Krauser" at Daily Norseman continues to be the one commented always worth reading. Dude breaks down film and players like a Pro:
Jauan Jennings is just a good football player.
He's tough and aggressive and finishes his blocks. He's a big target who comes down with the ball in traffic -- 20 contested catches in 2024 (tied for 3rd in the league with Sutton and St Brown) and another 18 last year (tied for 4th with Higgins and Chase). He scores touchdowns. He's clutch on 3rd downs -- Niners fans called him "3rd and Jauan" because Jennings was so consistently able to move the sticks. He can even throw the ball -- he's 2 for 2 with 2 TDs on trick plays in his NFL career, and had a couple of passing TDs in college as well.
Vikings will be able to use Jennings as the big slot with blocking responsibilities in the box ("Cooper Kupp role"), digging out safeties in the run game. He can also line up outside as the X allowing Jefferson to move into the slot. This might be especially effective in the red zone. Addison can play as a pure outside receiver flanker. With everyone healthy, the Vikings should have the best top 3 WRs in the league.
The contract as reported is a bargain. I think Jennings is worth more like $15-17M per year, in the same range as Romeo Doubs or Rashid Shaheed. Jennings has only limited career earnings considering his production, as a former 7th round pick who bounced through the practice squad -- $15.8M/2 on his RFA contract is most of it. It seems he was looking for closer to $20M AAV on a longer term deal. There's a rumor he turned down something in the range of $17M from the Niners. Draft evals can be "sticky" in terms of market value, and Jennings (the former 7th rounder who ran 4.72) apparently just didn't have a market for a bigger contract, even though he's been such a solid player the last couple of years.
I thought the Vikings might be willing to commit to Jennings for 2-3 years. Addison's long term situation is uncertain, even though it does look like the team will extend him if he can stay out of trouble going forward. Even with an extension, Addison's cap hits will be on the lower end through 2027 so they could have accommodated another WR contract in the meantime.
But this continues a trend this year to rebuilding the roster with few long-term contractual commitments. At this point, the only Vikings veteran contracts with significant dead cap hits in 2028 are Jefferson and Darrisaw. The list isn't much longer even just next year in 2027: Jefferson, Darrisaw, Murphy, Eric Wilson, Oliver and Fries are the only veteran contracts where the dead cap hit is >50% of the cap hit on the roster, and even there Fries being released would open up nearly $10M. That total could change with extensions this summer (O'Neill, Cashman?, maybe Van Ginkel again?) but they've really cleared the decks beyond 2026.
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