Shanahan reveals why Jennings fell to 49ers in seventh round originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
Drafting football players is an inexact science, but perhaps no team has benefitted more from other NFL teams’ missteps than the 49ers.
Jauan Jennings is among the star players on San Francisco’s roster that were selected after sliding into the middle or late rounds of the NFL draft.
During an interview with Greg Papa on NBC Sport’s Bay Area’s “49ers Game Plan,” Kyle Shanahan offered a detailed look into the pre-draft process that enabled San Francisco to select Jennings in the seventh round.
“Jauan, luckily he fell, just like Brock [Purdy]. You go back and you watch their college tape and it’s the most obvious thing in the world, you’re like, ‘how could this guy fall?’ The NFL overthinks some things,” Shanahan told Papa. “I remember the first time I saw Jauan, it wasn’t the tape. They put all the combine numbers up, the measurables and stuff — he didn’t test well at the combine. Now that I know Jauan, because Jauan had a bad vertical at the combine, but go watch him on YouTube. He can do a 360 dunk. So that doesn’t make much sense.
“He [Jennings] had a bad [40-yard dash], but he can run. Watch his post from last week. You see all his numbers up there, now that I know Jauan, I think Jauan is the most confident guy in the world. He probably didn’t think he needed to do much at the combine, just didn’t take it as seriously as he should’ve. But when you see those things, guys fall on that. Then he was at a school where a lot of stuff happened at that school at that time. Guys were transferring, I think the coaches were changing, guys were getting kicked out and stuff.
“So, I was like, ‘Obviously this guy is at the back of the draft. And then we put on his tape, and his tape looked like a first-or-second rounder. I think he was the all-time leading receiver in Tennessee history. So it didn’t totally match up. But when you see those numbers at the combine and stuff, and…
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