logo
Klay Kubiak: Jauan Jennings sees himself as a dominant player

Klay Kubiak: Jauan Jennings sees himself as a dominant player

Yahoo12-05-2025

The 49ers signed Brandon Aiyuk to a big contract before the 2024 season and they had Deebo Samuel in the middle of his own sizable extension, but neither one wound up being the team's leading receiver at the end of the year.
Jauan Jennings moved into that position with Aiyuk sidelined by a torn ACL and Samuel slipping from his previous level of production. Samuel is now in Washington and Aiyuk continues to work his way back to health, which means Jennings is still in his new spot in the pecking order and offensive coordinator Klay Kubiak said the wideout's mindset is to stay there regardless of who else is around.
Advertisement
"Yeah, I think, if you ask Jauan, he says 'I'm number one,'" Kubiak said, via 49ersWebzone.com. "And that's his mindset, and that's why we love Jauan. That's how he sees himself. He sees himself as a dominant player. I think you guys all saw last year when he got more chances, he played really, really well. So really fired up about Jauan."
Jennings had 78 catches for 963 yards and seven touchdowns in his first three seasons and then posted 77 catches for 975 yards and six scores last year, so it was a big lead forward for a wideout the 49ers will need to continue producing at a high level for their offense to catch fire in 2025.

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Christian McCaffrey: "I feel great" after injury-riddled 2024 season
Christian McCaffrey: "I feel great" after injury-riddled 2024 season

NBC Sports

time25 minutes ago

  • NBC Sports

Christian McCaffrey: "I feel great" after injury-riddled 2024 season

After struggling through multiple injuries in 2024, running back Christian McCaffrey is healthy as the 49ers complete their offseason program this week. A day after head coach Kyle Shanahan called him 'a psycho in a good way,' McCaffrey told reporters that he's feeling great entering the summer break. 'I think this offseason I spent a lot of time kind of building back a base starting from scratch, so a lot of it was rehab,' McCaffrey said, via Nick Wagoner of ESPN, 'and [I] wanted to put myself in a position where I didn't miss a day of OTAs and I could practice and play football again, be healthy and not miss a day, and I did that.' In just four games last season, McCaffrey rushed for 202 yards and caught 15 passes for 146 yards. When he won AP offensive player of the year in 2023, McCaffrey led the league with 1,459 yards rushing, 339 touches, 2,023 yards from scrimmage, and 23 total touchdowns.

Chicago Sky are struggling out of the gate with a new coach and revamped roster
Chicago Sky are struggling out of the gate with a new coach and revamped roster

NBC Sports

timean hour ago

  • NBC Sports

Chicago Sky are struggling out of the gate with a new coach and revamped roster

CHICAGO — Angel Reese captured a national championship and never lost more than two games in a row during a four-year college career. She and Caitlin Clark helped lead women's basketball to new heights with a rivalry that gripped the nation. After all that winning, first at Maryland and then LSU, her rookie season with the Chicago Sky was an eye-opener. Year 2 is off to a bumpy start, too. 'I'm not really a patient person,' Reese said. 'I like to perfect things right away. That's why I'm so hard on myself. We have great coaches, we have great players.' For now, they have room to improve. The Sky are struggling with a new coach and revamped roster, and are 2-6 following a lopsided road loss to the New York Liberty on Tuesday. A season-ending knee injury to franchise career assist leader Courtney Vandersloot last weekend only added to their difficulties. The slow start comes on the heels of a 13-27 season and 10th-place finish in the WNBA. The Sky dropped 12 of their final 14 games last year, then got busy reshaping the roster. Chicago fired coach Teresa Weatherspoon after one season and hired Las Vegas Aces assistant Tyler Marsh to take over for the Hall of Famer. The Sky brought in veteran leadership to help Reese and Kamilla Cardoso take their games to a different level, reuniting with Vandersloot and acquiring two-time All-Star Ariel Atkins from Washington. But in the early going, the team is having a rough time. Chicago ranks among the worst in the WNBA on offense and defense and leads the league in turnovers. The Sky have been blown out twice by Indiana, starting with a heated season opener on the road. Clark had a triple-double and sent tempers flaring by knocking Reese to the floor with a hard foul. Chicago dropped its first four games before back-to-back wins over struggling Dallas, with No. 1 overall draft pick Paige Bueckers missing the second meeting while in the concussion protocol. Just when the Sky seemed to be pointing themselves in the right direction, things took another painful turn on Saturday night. They got wiped out again by Indiana in the first WNBA game at the United Center, with a national, prime-time audience watching and Clark sidelined with a quad injury. Worse, Vandersloot tore the ACL in her right knee during the first quarter. The five-time All-Star known as 'The General' returned to Chicago after two years in New York, where she helped the Liberty capture the championship last season and earned her second ring to go with the one she got with the Sky in 2021. A little more than a week before the injury, Vandersloot broke wife Allie Quigley's franchise career records for scoring and field goals made. 'She's our engine,' Marsh said. 'She's our captain, she's our leader out there. Obviously, it's a huge blow.' One of the best distributors the WNBA has seen, Vandersloot is second to Hall of Famer Sue Bird in total assists and holds the highest season and career averages in league history. The Sky figure to lean more on rookie Hailey Van Lith, the No. 11 overall pick in the draft. 'She's done as good a job as she can in terms of handling pressure,' Marsh said. 'I think she'll continue to see that. But just understanding how to command a team, how to run a team — I think she's kind of now on a fast track to that.' Van Lith said watching Vandersloot go down was 'heartbreaking' and added: 'Whatever is in store in the future for this team, I trust that we will find a way to make this moment mean something.' Reese and Cardoso hold the keys. Though Reese leads the league in rebounding at 12.1 per game, she's shooting just 35.8% while averaging 10.1 points. Last year, she set a WNBA record with double-doubles in 15 straight games and finished with 26 on the season — the most ever by a rookie. She has four this year, giving her 30 in 42 games — the fewest needed to reach the mark in league history. Cardoso, the third overall pick last year, continues to show promise, including a career-high 23-point game in the first win over Dallas. But the former South Carolina star hasn't become a consistent dominant force inside. 'I think it's just continuing to instill the trust level that we have in her,' Marsh said. 'Her teammates look for her inside. They know what a force she can be down low, and our staff certainly is aware of who she can be down there as well. We want to give her looks and opportunities.'

Why Jaelan Phillips' injury history has prepared him for a critical 2025 season
Why Jaelan Phillips' injury history has prepared him for a critical 2025 season

Miami Herald

time2 hours ago

  • Miami Herald

Why Jaelan Phillips' injury history has prepared him for a critical 2025 season

The last couple of years have been rather rough for Jaelan Phillips. After a solid, two-year start to his NFL career, the Miami Dolphins edge rusher suffered a ruptured Achilles that prematurely ended his 2023 season in Week 12. Then, after an arduous rehab, Phillips returned at the start of 2024 — only to play four games before safety Jordan Poyer flew into his leg against the Buffalo Bills, tearing his ACL. Most people would have contemplated retirement, succumbing to the sadness of back-to-back major injuries. Phillips, however, isn't most people. The biggest hurdle was 'finding the balance of obviously being locked in, staying on top of the recovery but also giving myself a little bit of grace and a little bit of break,' Phillips said Wednesday. 'Obviously I went through a lot these last couple of years so I felt like I needed to take a little bit of time to kind of regather myself and then it allowed me to come back with a lot more clarity and focus and motivation.' With both the ACL and Achilles healed, Phillips will look to complete his first full season since 2022. The timing, however, cannot be better as 2025 will be a contract year for the five-year veteran. And as much as this could be considered 'put up or shut up' time, Phillips' only worry is what happens between the two lines, a point of praise for coach Mike McDaniel. 'If you can't control injuries, you have to be disciplined enough not to think about it and think about your technique and fundamentals,' McDaniel said Wednesday. 'We have the appropriate person for that challenge in Jaelan Phillips.' Added Phillips: 'I'm definitely just trying to stay focused. That's all you can do — stay present, stay focused. Because obviously, it's a big year and so it's not like I'm going to ignore that fact but at the same time, I can't do anything about six or seven months from now.' Adversity, however, is nothing new to Phillips. In late 2018, the edge rusher medically retired from the University of California, Los Angeles Bruins, citing a plethora of concussions and other injuries. Phillips subsequently transferred to the University of Miami where, following a year off, he returned to the football field in 2020. 'I think I went through a lot and experienced a lot in my time at UCLA and transitioning over to Miami,' Phillips said in Jan. 2022. 'So I think that's really taught me a lot about how I want to carry myself and what impact I want to have on this world. So for me, just understanding that it's way bigger than myself and it's bigger than any on-the-field or off-the-field accomplishment I can do.' The Achilles injury seemed to provide similar clarity as 'it helped me recenter myself as a person.' 'It's just another good reminder of even when you think you've overcome adversity, something's always going to come,' Phillips said, explaining that the rehab gave him the chance to develop 'relationships' that he usually wouldn't be able to due to the intensity of the NFL schedule. 'It's just very humbling, very sobering.' Such a mindset earned him praise from fellow edge rusher Bradley Chubb who rehabbed with Phillips as the former recovered from a devastating knee injury. 'He's a warrior,' edge rusher said. 'I like to surround myself with like-minded people and I feel like I'm a warrior in terms of how I handle adversity and he's the same puts his head down and he might have a bad day or two but it never affected how he approach the work, how he approached the task.' A healthy Phillips could give the Dolphins one of the most elite defensive fronts in football. The trio of edge rushers — Phillips, Chubb and Chop Robinson — combined with defensive tackles Zach Sieler and Kenneth Grant on the inside would be a nightmare for opposing offensive coordinators nightmares in 2025, something that certainly has him and coaches alike smiling. 'It would be exciting,' Phillips said. 'Chop has been having a hell of an OTAs. His improvement from last year to this year is so noticeable. It's insane, especially if you know the nitty gritty of it. I'm really proud of Chop and really excited to see how he's going to keep progressing. Obviously Bradley looks great. I feel really good so that's going to be fun.'

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into the world of global news and events? Download our app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store