Kurtenbach: Jauan Jennings is back with the 49ers, but all the big questions remain unanswered

So much for that calf injury So much for that contract negotiation Jauan Jennings was back at work on Monday seven weeks to the day his contract dispute became inhabitants and days after a calf injury took him off the practice field And while I m sure both the ers and the wide receiver will play this unnecessary and unbecoming summer saga off like it was no big deal the truth is that nothing was accomplished and plenty was lost over these last limited weeks Jennings ability to help the Niners in the organization s Week division championship with the Seahawks three practices away as of Monday morning should be viewed with deep skepticism There s completely no reason to believe he ll be anywhere near full speed for that contest and it s not as if Jennings is the kind of sportsman who has a step to spare Will two more practices ahead of Week Fridays are walk-through days five total be enough to return Jennings to the form he presented last season You know the form that the Niners needed for the first meager weeks of this season the form that made Jennings believe he was worth a massive pay raise less than a year after signing a new contract with the group That s a stretch Related Articles Kurtenbach It s too late for anyone to win Jauan Jennings showdown with the ers Best division in football Current down how the ers stack up against their NFC West rivals Two wide receivers and no punter the ers work-in-progress roster shows its flaws Kurtenbach Jake Moody s latest misses should seal his ers fate ers Studs and Duds Niners end preseason with more questions than answers We saw what a hold-in and it s undeniable now that s what Jennings last meager weeks were did to Brandon Aiyuk a bonafide No -yard receiver last season Without training camp he looked a step slow and out of the loop in a ers offense where timing is everything He didn t look like a million performer until Week Two weeks later his season was over Nick Bosa was a shell of his All-Pro self for the first month-plus of the season following a -day summer holdout he only had sacks in the first seven games of that season Even the football god Trent Williams looked mortal after his holdout last year his was his worst as a Niner Even that still made him one of the best offensive linemen in the tournament Perhaps Jennings is the exception to the rule He has beaten the odds his whole career after all But you d be a fool to bet on him again The Niners weren t betting on Jennings for the past seven months And that won t change now that he s back in the fold No it s better to expect the worst-case scenario and be happily surprised if it doesn t come to pass But for both the ers and Jennings the worst-case scenario is a Big L This isn t to say that the Niners were wrong to not seriously negotiate with Jennings on a new deal The time for the receiver to have urged for a new contract would have been in February or March The Niners wouldn t have given it to him but they might have been able to work out a business to a group that would before the NFL Draft Remember San Francisco s focus all offseason was and beyond How else do you explain the organization excising all their veteran depth and replacing it with kids And Jennings a -year-old receiver with hard miles on the odometer injury concerns his calf injury was a repeat from last year and a situational role in a relatively healthy offense was not part of those long-term plans The Niners made that clear when Jennings was not part of the coterie of veterans Fred Warner George Kittle and Kyle Juszczyk kinda who signed new contracts early this offseason It took Jennings months to see the writing on the wall And even when he noticed it he didn t quite comprehend what it meant That fundamental misunderstanding which came at the exact wrong time for a company that was subsequently hit with a never-ending string of injuries in August led us to nowadays It was all much ado about nothing Related Articles Jauan Jennings returns to field for ers practice ahead of season opener Kurtenbach It s too late for anyone to win Jauan Jennings showdown with the ers ers defense can feast on Sunday buffet of mediocre quarterbacks Why Marques Sigle could be the ers biggest early-impact rookie ers bring back defensive tackle Evan Anderson to practice squad And for a band that is going to be shorthanded at receiver for the first three weeks minimum with Demarcus Robinson suspended and rookie Jordan Watkins nursing a high ankle sprain Jennings return appears to be too little too late It s a huge missed opportunity for Jennings These first minimal weeks were set up for a healthy in-rhythm Jennings to showcase that he is indeed the kind of receiver worthy of -plus million per year With even a modicum of training camp reps the snaps and targets would have come his way early and often just like they did in Instead by the time it d be reasonable to expect Jennings to get up to speed and look like his old self the Niners receiver room will likely be overflowing Robinson will return he looked rock-solid in camp emerging easy trust with Brock Purdy and Kyle Shanahan Watkins appeared this August to be ahead of the curve for a rookie too His breakout could be imminent Aiyuk s return will be just around the corner and the Niners in part because of Jennings absence added other roster-worthy players into the mix Perhaps one of Russell Gage Marquez Valdes-Scantling or Skyy Moore pop The Niners insulated themselves against the loss of Jennings after this season But because of Jennings holdout they scrambled to insulate themselves against his absence this season too They can t undo that now that he s back in the fold So how will Jennings a contestant who has won with temperament not elite athletic traits handle a situation that has not and will likely never be to his liking We re about to find out But I can read the writing on the wall and I don t like it One chapter of this story may have closed But because there was no proper resolution the larger saga remains very much alive with no end in sight And the longer it plays out the more regrettable these last limited weeks are likely to look