Jauan Jennings — Week 1: One Target, and It Was Intercepted
2026 NFL Season · Half-PPR Scoring · Monday, Sep 14
Jennings was thrown to once in his first game as a Viking, Kyler Murray's deep right pass on second and eleven with fourteen twenty-three left in the first quarter, and Keisean Nixon intercepted it. Carson Wentz took twenty-two pass plays after Murray left and none of them went to Jennings; Justin Jefferson had nine targets, in a 39–22 win over the Packers.
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Jauan Jennings's first target as a Viking was the game's second snap. Second and 11 at the Minnesota 34, 14 23 left in the first quarter, no score: Kyler Murray deep right for Jennings, intercepted by Keisean Nixon at the Green Bay 36 and returned 11 yards to the 47. The throw was worth −4.1 expected points added — expected points added is what a play was worth given down, distance and field position — and −7 points of win probability, the chance of winning after the play against before it. It was the only turnover Minnesota committed, and Green Bay kicked a field goal from the possession it started.
That is the whole of his line. One target, no catches, no yards, 30 air yards on the one throw, −4.1 expected points. The play-by-play does not carry his name again: not on a throw, not on a carry, not on a penalty. Murray threw four more times before leaving the game late in the first quarter — he was ruled out with a concussion, per Lindsey Young at Vikings.com — and none of the four was for Jennings. Carson Wentz then took 22 pass plays from the first quarter on, and none of those was for Jennings either.
What the passing game did without him is the football. The targets went nine to Justin Jefferson, five to T.J. Hockenson, four to Josh Oliver, two to Jordan Addison, one each to Aaron Jones, DeeJay Dallas and Jennings, and one throw carries no receiver. Jefferson caught eight for 92 yards and two touchdowns and converted all four of his third-down targets; Hockenson caught four for 36 and the 16-yard touchdown on third and eight; Addison's two targets were both third downs and both incomplete. Minnesota threw 17 pass plays before halftime and 10 after, and its 27 pass plays came out at −0.5 expected points on the day, three touchdowns and all; the throw to Jennings was the largest single minus among them.
Back in June the preview leaned underpriced on Jennings: the 50-ninth receiver at pick one 55, nine touchdowns in San Francisco, a touchdown-fade that fired and still left a tier of daylight, and one open question — whether a new depth chart's third receiver job could carry the targets, with his September share against a 19.4-percent baseline as the watch, and "if Jefferson and Addison eat the tree" as the way it fails. Sunday the tree went nine to Jefferson, two to Addison and one to Jennings, and the one was intercepted. A single target, thrown by a quarterback who left the game two possessions later, is not a share and not a verdict on one. Minnesota is at the Bears on Sunday the twentieth. The number to watch is the first target from Wentz.
_Data via nflverse._
When Jauan Jennings's week moves the numbers, you'll know — every episode, in one weekly email.
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