49ers: 3 players who benefit from Jalen Hurd injury

No. 1: WR Jauan Jennings

The 49ers drafted former Tennessee wide receiver Jauan Jennings in the seventh round of the 2020 NFL Draft. And after watching him play it became common for 49ers fans to refer to Jennings as “Jalen Hurd insurance.”

The moniker wasn’t intended to downplay Jennings’ skills or denigrate Hurd in any way, but simply noted the similarities in the two former Volunteers’ play styles. Both are big pass-catchers whose primary mode of making defenders miss is the same: run them over.

But the name also wasn’t intended to predict the future but was noted in light of Hurd coming off a back injury, something which often takes time to recover from.

When Hurd was given the green light from team doctors to practice during training camp, 49ers fans began dreaming of another concept: two more thumping, YAC-monsters to add to the mix of George Kittle and Deebo Samuel catching passes from 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo.

This certainly wasn’t a consensus across the board, as some predictions still assumed the best place for Jennings would be the 2020 practice squad, where he could refine his skill set and become an offensive force for Kyle Shanahan in 2021.

Hurd’s injury may force the 49ers brass to keep Jennings on the 53-man roster, even if the lack of preseason games may work in their favor in terms of maybe letting him sneak through waivers if they cut him.

But since the two players are very similar, Jennings may be able to slide into Hurd’s role pretty seamlessly, minus maybe being included as a runner out of the backfield.

Hurd was essentially going into his rookie season, having missed all of 2019, and so it isn’t as if he would have had an advantage over Jennings based purely on NFL games played.

Much may be asked of Jennings in his rookie season, especially if Samuel is slow to recover or fellow rookie Aiyuk’s hype is overblown and he struggles out of the gate. But it really shouldn’t be too complicated: catch the ball and run right through people.

If Jennings can do that, he’ll be plenty good enough to help the 2020 49ers offense.