Kevin O’Connell is still willing to vouch for Jauan Jennings, even as the Minnesota Vikings’ wide-receiver room grows more crowded.
The head coach addressed the veteran’s slow start on Wednesday afternoon, with Minnesota preparing to face the Las Vegas Raiders and Odell Beckham Jr. newly in the building.
Jennings arrived in the offseason on a one-year, $13 million contract, expected to supply the kind of chain-moving reliability that defined his years in San Francisco.
Through the early portion of the season, that production has not arrived. He has two catches for nine yards on four targets, a thin return for a player the Vikings paid to help immediately.
O’Connell did not treat the numbers as a verdict.
“I think Jauan’s done a lot of really good things in the run game for us,” he said. “He’s had a couple chances where maybe, either the rhythm and timing or just a little more detail showing up out of the group as a whole, Jauan included — but we’re not far off, and Jauan’s gonna be a guy that’s gonna make some plays for us.”
The résumé supports the optimism more than the box score does. In 2025 with the 49ers, Jennings caught 55 passes for 643 yards and nine touchdowns.
The year before that, he posted 77 receptions for 975 yards and six scores. Roughly 63 percent of his career catches have moved the chains, according to NFL.com, and he has often been at his best when the down and distance demanded a physical, contested target.
Against the Saints in Week 2 of 2025, he turned a season-high 10 targets into five catches, 89 yards and a touchdown, including a 42-yard grab that showed the playmaking range Brock Purdy leaned on.
Minnesota has not yet seen that version. Jennings missed the second week of the season against the Chicago Bears because of a personal matter. In the opener against Green Bay, he and quarterback J.J. McCarthy’s backup — the article identifies the passer as Murray — were clearly out of sync.
Murray threw an interception on a play in which Jennings was double-covered, then left the game with a concussion, cutting short any chance for the two to settle into a rhythm.
That sequence helps explain the quiet start without erasing the pressure that comes with it. Adding Beckham gives the offense another proven option and narrows the margin for a receiver who has yet to separate himself in the passing game.
O’Connell’s remarks can be read as standard coach-speak, but they also sketch a specific role: Jennings has already helped in the run game, the timing issues are framed as correctable, and the staff still expects him to produce.
Whether that expectation holds depends on the next few weeks. The Vikings need the offense to find a higher level, and the receiver room is no longer short on alternatives. Jennings has made a career of converting chances when they arrive. In Minnesota, those chances are becoming harder to wait on.
