Jauan Jennings felt as if he deserved more money.

A strong argument can be made that he enters the 2025 NFL season vastly underpaid.

The 49ers would have preferred working out an extension that would have kept Jennings under contract beyond this season.

Instead, Jennings receives a reworked contract that includes the possibility of earning an additional $3 million in play-time incentives, sources confirmed to NBC Sports Bay Area.

And the 49ers benefit from the assurance that Jennings will get on the field and do everything in his power to have a productive season.

In other words, neither side could declare a victory in this struggle.

With the opening of the regular season just four days away, it is more obvious than ever that Jennings needs the 49ers and the 49ers need Jennings.

Jennings signed a two-year, $15.3 million contract with the 49ers in May of 2024. He outplayed his contract last season when the 49ers had all kinds of issues at wide receiver.

First-round draft pick Ricky Pearsall was a gunshot victim just before the start of the regular season, which kept him off the field for the first eight games of the season.

Brandon Aiyuk was a “hold in” throughout training camp before signing a four-year, $120 million contract extension. He got off to a slow start before sustaining a torn ACL that ended his season and forced him to start this year on the physically-unable-to-perform list.

Deebo Samuel experienced an up-and-down season, his six-year run with the 49ers ran its course, which led to an offseason trade to the Washington Commanders.

Jennings stepped up and generally produced like a No. 1 receiver.

He posted career-highs with 77 catches for 975 yards and six touchdowns.

Jennings was scheduled to make up to $7.5 million this year. Now, if he reaches his unspecified play-time incentives, he can make $10.5 million this season.

Per Jennings’ contract, he was scheduled to make $6.65 million in salary this season with the 49ers with $3.275 million coming in an advance payment in February.

His contract also calls for him to make $50,000 per every game in which he appears for a possible total of $850,000 in roster bonuses.

Shortly before the opening of training camp, it was made known that Jennings was seeking a significant pay raise or he wanted to be traded.

The 49ers were willing to work with Jennings on a new contract for what they deemed to be a reasonable figure, a source told NBC Sports Bay Area. General manager John Lynch said last week that the 49ers were not going to trade Jennings.

It appears that the sides just agreed to disagree on what was a reasonable dollar amount for a contract extension.

And, now, Jennings still is in his contract year but with the ability to put a little more cash in his pocket this season and set himself for a major payday as a free agent in March.

“I think I said at the beginning of training camp how badly myself and everyone in this building wants Jauan back in the long term,” 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan said on Wednesday.

That long-term union appears less likely with this stop-gap agreement.

If Jennings remains healthy and productive, it seems likely he will price himself out of the 49ers’ market.

But the 49ers will benefit from having him on the field for what could be one final season together.

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