The 49ers didn’t need much from 2012 first-round receiver A.J. Jenkins during his rookie season.. Which is good, because they didn’t get much. They got so little that Matt Maiocco of CSNBayArea.com recently suggested on PFT Live that, if Jenkins hadn’t been a first-round draft pick, he would have gotten cut last year.
This year, despite indications that he’s still struggling to adjust to the NFL level, Jenkins could start in the 49ers preseason opener.
“I still haven’t totally decided,” coach Jim Harbaugh said Wednesday, via quotes distributed by the team. “Again, if you start two receivers if you start three, if you start only one because of the personnel group, what do you consider the starter?”
With Michael Crabtree recovering from a torn Achilles tendon, the only clear-cut starter is Anquan Boldin. The initial depth chart showed a logjam behind Boldin, but Harbaugh downplayed the unofficially official configuration of players.
“The depth chart is not a painstaking thing that I go fill out,” Harbaugh said. "[P.R. director] Bob Lange fills out the depth chart. So I wouldn’t read, nothing against Bob . . . I wouldn’t read too much into it. It’s not a painstaking process to fill out the depth chart.”
It’s will be far more painstaking to move the ball through the air if Jenkins doesn’t step up in his second season.
