AJ Jenkins is a 49er

You know I just re watched the Arizona game. I was actually surprised how much cushion the backs were giving him. Hopefully he settles down to make a few plays. He needs to make some catches so that the Defense at least has to respect that he is over there.

Originally posted by VA49er:
You know I just re watched the Arizona game. I was actually surprised how much cushion the backs were giving him. Hopefully he settles down to make a few plays. He needs to make some catches so that the Defense at least has to respect that he is over there.

I saw that too. They know he's fast.

Originally posted by GNielsen:

Originally posted by ChazBoner:

Originally posted by PRIMETIME21:
im sure everyone was like who? when we picked him in the first round.

definitely a reach. It payed off the year before with Aldon. This time around, it doesn't appear to have yet. But you never know. The dude was targeted once and dropped it. Wouldn't call him a bust just yet.

In Jerry Rice's first couple of games, he dropped a bunch. He got some boos from the crowd for dropping a Montana bomb early on. YES, in Jenkins' case it's way too early to call him a bust. The only two other legitimate wide receivers on the team when Rice came in were Solomon and Clark. Jenkins had to look at Crabtree, a top 10 draft pick, Moss, a HOF-er and Manningham so it should have been predictable that he would have trouble cracking the lineup. He was drafted for the future, but of course, the future is now and he has to get it together for the playoffs. I think he will.

So. Jerry Rice caught for 927 yards on only 49 catches his rookie season. Talking about Rice and drops and using that to compare to other rookie receivers is not even comparable...unless they have put up nearly 1000 yards and the only issue to correct is the drops.


It is valid to state that Jenkins turned out to be a project and we could have drafted another WR with raw talent but other abilities greater than Jenkins instead.

Originally posted by GNielsen:
I saw that too. They know he's fast.

Seems to be no reason he can't haul in some drag routes undeneath or some short slants. Wasn't the selling point on this kid that he was ready to run an NFL route tree already? Hopefully knowing full well he is going to start and having a game under his belt will help him be mentally prepared. He's going to have some open looks and Kaep needs to trust him to catch the ball.

Originally posted by VA49er:
You know I just re watched the Arizona game. I was actually surprised how much cushion the backs were giving him. Hopefully he settles down to make a few plays. He needs to make some catches so that the Defense at least has to respect that he is over there.

they gave him so much cushion cause they knew the ball wasn't going his way after that drop.

Originally posted by Joecool:

Originally posted by GNielsen:

Originally posted by ChazBoner:

Originally posted by PRIMETIME21:
im sure everyone was like who? when we picked him in the first round.

definitely a reach. It payed off the year before with Aldon. This time around, it doesn't appear to have yet. But you never know. The dude was targeted once and dropped it. Wouldn't call him a bust just yet.

In Jerry Rice's first couple of games, he dropped a bunch. He got some boos from the crowd for dropping a Montana bomb early on. YES, in Jenkins' case it's way too early to call him a bust. The only two other legitimate wide receivers on the team when Rice came in were Solomon and Clark. Jenkins had to look at Crabtree, a top 10 draft pick, Moss, a HOF-er and Manningham so it should have been predictable that he would have trouble cracking the lineup. He was drafted for the future, but of course, the future is now and he has to get it together for the playoffs. I think he will.

So. Jerry Rice caught for 927 yards on only 49 catches his rookie season. Talking about Rice and drops and using that to compare to other rookie receivers is not even comparable...unless they have put up nearly 1000 yards and the only issue to correct is the drops.


It is valid to state that Jenkins turned out to be a project and we could have drafted another WR with raw talent but other abilities greater than Jenkins instead.

rice is probably the greatest player to put on pads though lol

Way to early to give up on the kid. He did seem to have some serious first game jitters going on in the cards game but that will clear itself up, hopefully sooner than later.

We are gonna need him to make some plays though if our O is gonna be successful in the playoffs.

Originally posted by GNielsen:
It's not like they grow on trees. Who do you have in mind?

It's their way of saying bring back Brett Swain. Also, what's PJ Fleck doing these days?

Listen -- really don't mean to be a Negative Nancy here, or even a Debbie Downer, but given the kid can't even line up in the right formations (see last weekend against AZ), I don't see him making much of an impact in a playoff game. That's just too much to ask of him if you ask me.

I think this is a lost season for him. Bringing in Manningham, in retrospect, may have been a mistake. It just served to retard the kid's development. Still, he should know where to line up on the damn field, even if he isn't starting. The fact that CK7 had to tell him where to go, and then Delanie had to back him off the line of scrimmage was a little disappointing to watch.

I think Colin's primary targets will continue to be Krabs and Kwalker. Don't know why Vernon doesn't have the same rapport with Kaep yet. Perhaps it's because there's no "K" in front of the name, Vernon.

But, bottom line? I'm just a fan. Who knows what the kid will do in the playoffs. I'm just not holding my breath, waiting for him to show something.

Another thing to add is this: the 49ers haven't had the best of luck when it comes to drafting impact wide receivers. Since Rice and Taylor once shined for this team, the pickings have been rather slim. There was that kid from UCLA, JJ Stokes, who earned the well deserved nickname of JJ Chokes. Then there was T.O., who might have been alright had he not been batshyte crazy. And, after T.O.? Well, there's Crabtree, who is finally having the kind of year we all thought he'd have after we drafted him -- not in Year 4.

That's not a real good track record for drafting and developing good wide receivers. You would think that the team who gave the world Jerry Rice would know how to draft and develop good wide receivers.

Think again.

Originally posted by Joecool:
So. Jerry Rice caught for 927 yards on only 49 catches his rookie season. Talking about Rice and drops and using that to compare to other rookie receivers is not even comparable...unless they have put up nearly 1000 yards and the only issue to correct is the drops.


It is valid to state that Jenkins turned out to be a project and we could have drafted another WR with raw talent but other abilities greater than Jenkins instead.

I agree that there is no valid comparison. I only brought up Rice to illustrate that you can't let a couple of early drops be indicative of how a given receiver is going to perform. That's all. But, I'm not sure about "other abilities greater than Jenkins." I'm not sure there were other receivers with as much speed. There were some comparable, but when you watch Jenkins play, he certainly looks faster than his combine grades which were not that bad anyway. And, you have to admit that those Cardinals db's were playing way off with Jenkins. I think they know something about his speed that you may be overlooking.

Originally posted by LifelongNiner:

Originally posted by GNielsen:
It's not like they grow on trees. Who do you have in mind?

It's their way of saying bring back Brett Swain. Also, what's PJ Fleck doing these days?

Right. I'm still waiting for a suggestion and watching the way the Cardinals DB's played way off Jenkins last week, I don't think there is anyone available with nearly the speed Jenkins has.

Originally posted by billbird2111:
Listen -- really don't mean to be a Negative Nancy here, or even a Debbie Downer, but given the kid can't even line up in the right formations (see last weekend against AZ), I don't see him making much of an impact in a playoff game. That's just too much to ask of him if you ask me.

This is something that has been lost in the big drop that he had against the Cardinals. There were so many times where he looked completely lost and confused and multiple Niners had to motion for him to go somewhere else. To me, this is a bigger problem than the ball that went right through his hands.

Two weeks of practicing with the first team as opposed to the scout team should fix that.

Originally posted by 80sbaby24:

Originally posted by billbird2111:
Listen -- really don't mean to be a Negative Nancy here, or even a Debbie Downer, but given the kid can't even line up in the right formations (see last weekend against AZ), I don't see him making much of an impact in a playoff game. That's just too much to ask of him if you ask me.

This is something that has been lost in the big drop that he had against the Cardinals. There were so many times where he looked completely lost and confused and multiple Niners had to motion for him to go somewhere else. To me, this is a bigger problem than the ball that went right through his hands.

I don't think this is a problem. He will probably be a part of 20 plays at the most and the plays he is in will/should be strictly unchangeable. That's all he needs to memorize in 2 weeks. He can memorize just over 1 per day.

What concerns me the most is that he will not be required to play at regular season NFL speed. He will be required to play at playoff level speed.