So much for that calf injury. So much for that contract negotiation.

Jauan Jennings was back at work on Monday, seven weeks to the day his contract dispute became public and 36 days after a calf injury took him off the practice field.

And while I’m sure both the 49ers and the wide receiver will play this unnecessary and unbecoming summer saga off like it was no big deal, the truth is that nothing was accomplished, and plenty was lost over these last few weeks.

Jennings’ ability to help the Niners in the team’s Week 1 division game with the Seahawks — three practices away as of Monday morning — should be viewed with deep skepticism. There’s simply no reason to believe he’ll be anywhere near full speed for that contest — and it’s not as if Jennings is the kind of player who has a step to spare.

Will two more practices ahead of Week 2 (Fridays are walk-through days) — five total — be enough to return Jennings to the form he showed last season?

You know, the form that the Niners needed for the first few weeks of this season; the form that made Jennings believe he was worth a massive pay raise less than a year after signing a new contract with the team?

That’s a stretch.

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We saw what a hold-in — and it’s undeniable now that’s what Jennings’ last few weeks were — did to Brandon Aiyuk, a bonafide No. 1, 1,000-yard receiver last season. Without training camp, he looked a step slow and out of the loop in a 49ers’ offense where timing is everything. He didn’t look like a $30 million player until Week 5. Two weeks later, his season was over.

Nick Bosa was a shell of his All-Pro self for the first month-plus of the 2023 season following a 44-day summer holdout — he only had 2.5 sacks in the first seven games of that season.

Even the football god Trent Williams looked mortal after his holdout last year — his 2024 was his worst as a Niner. (Even that still made him one of the best offensive linemen in the game.)

Perhaps Jennings is the exception to the rule. He has beaten the odds his whole career, after all.

But you’d be a fool to bet on him again.

The Niners weren’t betting on Jennings for the past seven months. And that won’t change now that he’s back in the fold.

No, it’s better to expect the worst-case scenario and be happily surprised if it doesn’t come to pass.

But for both the 49ers and Jennings, the worst-case scenario is a Big L.

This isn’t to say that the Niners were wrong to not seriously negotiate with Jennings on a new deal. The time for the receiver to have asked for a new contract would have been in February or March. The Niners wouldn’t have given it to him, but they might have been able to work out a trade to a team that would before the NFL Draft.

Remember: San Francisco’s focus all offseason was 2026 and beyond. How else do you explain the team excising all their veteran depth and replacing it with kids?

And Jennings, a 28-year-old receiver with hard miles on the odometer, injury concerns (his calf injury was a repeat from last year), and a situational role in a relatively healthy offense, was not part of those long-term plans.

The Niners made that clear when Jennings was not part of the coterie of veterans [Fred Warner, George Kittle, and Kyle Juszczyk (kinda)] who signed new contracts early this offseason.

It took Jennings months to see the writing on the wall.

And even when he noticed it, he didn’t quite comprehend what it meant.

That fundamental misunderstanding — which came at the exact wrong time for a team that was subsequently hit with a never-ending string of injuries in August — led us to today.

It was all much ado about nothing.

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And for a team that is going to be shorthanded at receiver for the first three weeks, minimum, with Demarcus Robinson suspended and rookie Jordan Watkins nursing a high ankle sprain, Jennings’ return appears to be too little too late.

It’s a huge missed opportunity for Jennings.

These first few weeks were set up for a healthy, in-rhythm Jennings to showcase that he is, indeed, the kind of receiver worthy of $20-plus million per year. With even a modicum of training camp reps, the snaps and targets would have come his way early and often, just like they did in 2024.

Instead, by the time it’d be reasonable to expect Jennings to get up to speed and look like his old self, the Niners’ receiver room will likely be overflowing. Robinson will return — he looked rock-solid in camp, developing easy trust with Brock Purdy and Kyle Shanahan. Watkins appeared this August to be ahead of the curve for a rookie, too. His breakout could be imminent. Aiyuk’s return will be just around the corner, and the Niners — in part because of Jennings’ absence — added other roster-worthy players into the mix. Perhaps one of Russell Gage, Marquez Valdes-Scantling, or Skyy Moore pop.

The Niners insulated themselves against the loss of Jennings after this season. But because of Jennings’ holdout, they scrambled to insulate themselves against his absence this season, too. They can’t undo that now that he’s back in the fold.

So how will Jennings — a player who has won with temperament, not elite athletic traits — handle a situation that has not and will likely never be to his liking?

We’re about to find out. But I can read the writing on the wall and I don’t like it.

One chapter of this story may have closed. But because there was no proper resolution, the larger saga remains very much alive with no end in sight.

And the longer it plays out, the more regrettable these last few weeks are likely to look.