Two years ago, the 49ers were riding high in a season that saw them reach the Super Bowl while four of their skills position players eclipsed 1,000 yards of offense — running back Christian McCaffrey eclipsed 2,000. Today’s 49ers are still in the thick of the hunt for the playoffs, and it’s a wonder they are, considering one of the abovementioned players is no longer on the team and another could soon follow. 
According to Dianna Russini and Michael Silver of The Athletic, the 49ers appear to be preparing to part ways with veteran wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk. The telltale sign informing this report was the team’s decision to void the guaranteed money on Aiyuk’s contract for 2026, based on some of the receiver’s recent behavior.
Just before the start of the 2024 NFL season, the 49ers put an end to a lengthy, contentious contract negotiation, signing Aiyuk to a four-year, $120MM extension. Aiyuk had staged a hold in for 38 days after refusing to play on his fifth-year option and demanding a new contract. He even requested a trade and was linked to several teams throughout the hold in. Hold ins like that have been made popular in recent years as the 49ers have seen similar negotiations go sour before an eventual resolve late in the summer.
After putting their strife aside, a disappointing start to Aiyuk’s 2024 campaign went from bad to worse when he suffered a torn ACL seven weeks into the season. Aiyuk once again drew trade interest in the offseason, but it was Deebo Samuel who got shipped out to DC. When an Aiyuk-trade didn’t end up taking place by April, the focus shifted to a midseason return for the 27-year-old. As the start of the season and a placement on the reserve/physically unable to perform list drew nearer and nearer, Week 6 was disclosed as the target return date.
A little over a month ago, that target was pushed out to November, but his 21-day practice window remained unopened. Per Russini and Silver, there were things behind the scenes that contributed to the lack of clarity on a return plan, and some of those things contributed to a situation that now seems to be on the verge of divorce.
Reports out of the Bay Area claim that Aiyuk has been frequently absent in recent months, failing to attend meetings and declining to participate in other team activities. Additionally, the team has “grown increasingly frustrated with (Aiyuk’s) lack of communication.” The wideout is reportedly a ghost in the building, working out early in the morning and departing before teammates arrive. The report claims that numerous members of the team — both staff and players — have unsuccessfully reached out, attempting to reel Aiyuk back in.
This lack of communication and attendance led the 49ers to drastic measures. In response, San Francisco voided the 2026 guaranteed money in Aiyuk’s contract, “asserting that the absences amounted to a failure to fulfill his contractual obligations.” When approached by the NFL Players Association and asked if he wanted to push back with an official grievance, Aiyuk expressed that he had no interest. With no guarantees for next year, it’s expected the 49ers would release Aiyuk from his contract at the end of the season, making him a free agent.
According to Russini and Silver, there are still some in the building who are “holding out hope that the relationship can be salvaged” and that he might still make his debut this season, but reconciliation seems an unlikely result at this point. Now, those teams that were connected to Aiyuk after his trade request — the Steelers, Browns, and Patriots, who all could use a big upgrade at the position — will likely be watching this situation closely, hoping for Aiyuk’s eventual release.
Who is the next sucker?
I wouldn’t mind him on a rest of season contract, but wouldn’t want to sign him longterm
Pittsburgh and Buffalo would do unspeakable things to get a WR like Aiyuk
Going full DeVondre Campbell.
“I ain’t addressing sh¡t. I’m rich and never have to work another day of my life…” – Campbell, post-game
Greatest rant of all time.
I’m still a little more fond of Jim Mora’s “Playoffs?!?” Haha
All of Mora’s rants were. I should have specified for a player.
This seemed inevitable since he signed his extension. Neither side seemed to really want to do it, but did it anyway.
So if he gets his apparent wish and is released, what is his plan here? Hit the market for the 2026 season having collected a grand total of 25 catches in just seven games played in 2024 and 2025 combined? Yeah, teams will be just beating down his door to pay him, especially with this reputation.
A smarter player who wants out would do everything he needed (workouts with the team, attending meetings, etc) to keep getting paid, then get out on the field, show your worth, and request a trade. Can’t imagine he’ll end up ahead of the game financially here.
You seen this league? If he’s recovered, he’ll get signed. He was the #1.5 receiver on a Super Bowl participant. He’ll get 28 million easy, probably more with how this league throws money at receivers. He just really didn’t seme to want to be there, and the 49ers didn’t exactly want him back, which made that last minute re-sign all the more bizarre.
I strongly disagree that he will get $28 million when A) he’s proven to be a malcontent, and B) he will have two straight years of injuries and ineffectiveness. There’s only about 10 WRs in the league making $28+ million and Aiyuk isn’t as good as any of them. No one is going to be tripping over themselves for Aiyuk.
Yes, the league that cares about character flags, lmao. Again, what league you been watching?
You’re saying $28 million. When you couple his lack of performance with character flags, yes, it matters. What league are *you* watching where a WR pushing 30 with two straight years of non-production *and* character issues becomes one of the highest paid players in the league?
You also said “$28 million easy”, so you think he’ll get even more than that. Delusional.
How much is Calvin Ridley making right now? He basically went home and quit the Falcons, and he wasn’t even hurt. Had a bidding war for him between the Patriots, Titans, and Jaguars two years ago. Aiyuk is a better player than him at a similar point of his career. Again, take your emotions out of it.
$28 mil 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 he needs to hire you as his agent. If the Niners cut him he’s looking at $5-8 mil if he’s lucky
I didn’t say that’s what I would pay him. He’s a receiver. Outside of QB, they’re the position at highest demand in the league. ACL is a run-of-the-mill injury. I don’t know what’s going on with him there, but he clearly wanted to leave after the Super Bowl and waffled just because of who was trying to trade for him. We’ll see, but I tend to be right about these things.
But it wasn’t just a torn ACL. Aiyuk also tore his MCL and meniscus. A bit more than the “run-of-the-mill” injury.
It’s not an injury that should keep you out a whole year. Let’s put it like that. He’s clearly slow rolling this injry because he doesn’t want to play for them, which seemed obvious during the whole fiasco last year, or he’s really hurt. Since he’s leaving money on the table, I’d point to the former.
I think 28m is too high on the estimate, but I agree that he’s going to get signed, and the money will be more than people are expecting it to be. He’s relatively young, he’s got talent- and you’re usually not labeled a malcontent until you’ve burned your bridges at two stops. He’ll get 15-18m somewhere, although the guarantees will be light.
He’s getting way more than 15 or 18 mil. I don’t think you people understand where the market is right now. A good number two is getting 25 mil now. He was coveted by four different teams a calendar year ago. That’s the only reason I said 28 mil because 35 mil is #1 receiver money now, and he’s coming off of an injury. What did Diggs get, and he was very much in question late into the off-season. He’s younger.
Diggs has a much stronger resume, though. Diggs has five seasons with over 100 receptions. Aiyuk has never posted 100 receptions. Using Diggs’ contract as a comp is partially how I came up with my guess.
Who cares about your resume when you’re 31 and coming off a major knee injury, and Aiyuk’s resume was pretty much on par with his the last four years. He’s being spoken of like he had one good year. People were saying all the same stuff about Diggs and how he wasn’t going to get paid again, and then the Patriots popped out with 70 mil. I see a whole lot of emotional responses in here because you don’t want to see bad behavior rewarded, but that’s simply not how the world works. He’s 27, and although I don’t think the league sees him in that elite receiver category, he’s clearly seen a step above the #2s in the league. You couuldn’t see Sean Payton throwing money at him if they don’t win it all? Not to mention the four teams that were chasing him a year ago. Just watch and see.
@realfootballfan Nobody is going give the guy $28 million after these character issues have come to light AND his lack of production the last 2 years. Put down the crack pipe.
He didn’t play this year, so why are you talking like he got hurt again this year? Again, if he’s healthy, watch and see. Receivers who get 14/15 yards a catch don’t grow on trees, and this league has never cared about character. The 49ers had a dude who quit the team because he was mad the guy he filled in came back, and I guarantee you people have been calling him since they released him after that. Mercenary league. The Patriots were flirting with Christian Wilkins right after the Raiders cut him, and he hasn’t played in two years. He got cut for basically the same thing.
Injury-prone guy with a history of character issues is only getting a prove it contract. If he gets more than $8 million for a one year deal, I’ll be very surprised.
You mean like betting on football and being suspended for a year after leaving your team halfway through a season? Calvin Ridley got almost a hundred mil after that. I’m wondering where in the world all of these bad takes are coming from.
Realfootballfan is right, I think, in that Aiyuk will get another contract as soon as he is ready. However, I doubt that it’ll be $28 million or any number in that exact range. He won’t get a minimum deal, though. Whatever deal he gets will be filled with no guarantees and incentives, but till look really good publicly so he can feel like he’s still a top wideout with only a few injuries.
I am willing to bet, as a non-gambling man, that Aiyuk still feels very strongly that he is a top level wideout-even if he isn’t. Of course, we’ll have to see after his return where he is physically, but the real issue is his handling of the entire thing. He was difficult to deal with before the deal (wanting money is one thing; demanding a trade, then making it only to specific teams, and then ultimately reneging on your own terms is mind blowing levels of self-centeredness), and apparently now is difficult to deal with afterward. Getting hurt is not something Aiyuk planned, obviously, but if he’s not working hard or even showing effort, that’s totally unacceptable.
I don’t bring that up to bash Aiyuk, specifically. I only do it to fully project what a team will be looking at to sign him. Teams will look at that and ask, “Is this worth it?” Really, more accurately, they’ll ask, “How much is too much to trust this so we don’t get burned?” Aiyuk had a short but productive stretch where he was a top five (maximum) or top ten (minimum) receiver in the league. Teams, as realfootballfan said, want that quite badly, so badly that they’ll hire people like Antonio Brown or Odell Beckham after their injuries or antics. The thing that Aiyuk has here is lack of effort, even after domineering the 9ers to a big payday. That’s much worse in the eyes of teams, but I don’t think that drives the interested teams away. It only lowers the price tag.
So, in the end, I doubt highly that Aiyuk will have few suitors. He’ll definitely have a few teams desperate enough to sign him to leverage offers (whether they should is another argument), and he’ll get competitive offers. I just don’t think that it’ll be in the $28 million range, and that’s primarily due to how he secured his deal. It’ll have to look good enough to satisfy Aiyuk’s and his agent’s idea of his own ability though (so it’ll have to look bigger than it actually is). He’s shown that he will put his finances first, but has also shown that his effort is dependent on his mood. Of course, I could also see a one year deal where Aiyuk produces decently and then gets a knee jerk reaction, badly planned deal the next year, ala Calvin Ridley with Jacksonville/Tennessee…
The talent will secure him a deal, but his actions and need to prove himself physically will lower the price from what it could have been. My question now is how many of the old suitors from Aiyuk’s self generated trade sweepstakes are still interested…
The man is an I burger with Me sauce. Oh, he’ll get a deal, but it won’t be near what he’s “earning” now- and it won’t be anywhere near the guaranteed money he’ll want.
Can’t disagree.
Hello Kansas City
No cap room. 31 million over the cap right now.
How many more receivers need to go there to make Chief fans realize it’s not the receivers that are the issue. Mahomes #1 in his best years was Kelce, and as he’s slowed down, so has he. They need to hit on a successor to him like a Brock Bowers or Sam LaPorta, which isn’t exactly easy since TEs of that caliber don’t grow on trees and most of them take a few years to develop, unlike those two who hit the ground running.
Looks like they should have taken that Browns Amari Cooper deal or whatever Pitt was offering. He will probably go to Wash because Jayden and him are close. He won’t get much since they dragged feet for Terry who means more to the org.
He refused to re-sign with Cleveland. It wasn’t the 49ers holding it up. The two teams he wanted to go to weren’t going to give more than a 2nd rounder for him. McLorin and Aiyuk both suffered the same fate after doing the hold-in thing. These teams probably need to resolve these issues before training camp if they want to get normal production out of these players.
It’d be interesting to see if Washington wants to replace Samuel with Aiyuk next year. The former will be a free agent next year, so if they wanted to, they certainly could (Samuel will be 30, and McLaurin is good but not exactly young either), but it’s hard for me to predict their strategy right now, to be honest. They haven’t displayed a consistent strategy yet in player acquisition for me to say that they’ll definitely go to the draft or not.
If they do decide to do this, we’ll have to see if Aiyuk is willing to take a team friendly deal to go to someone that he has a history with. He didn’t do it last year to facilitate a trade to a team that he wanted, but maybe he will after getting the deal. Hard to tell at this point without knowing Aiyuk. We’ll see.
Thank God. Never wanted them to give him the contract they did. Would have much rather held on to Deebo and let Aiyuk walk in the first place.
So, like…what’s going on with this guy?
CTE? Drugs? Got paid and doesn’t care at all anymore?
He never wanted to come back in the first place. Still sitting out this year is egregious, but he seems to have used it to force his way out after a year and a half of rehabbing without playing.
People don’t just leave guaranteed money on the table for no reason. Something don’t sound right. He’s showing up to work out so it’s not like he isn’t showing up at all. But losing the guarantee and having no desire to pursue a grievance is odd. The guaranteed money must not be much and a number he can eclipse in the market. Although I doubt he’ll have much of a market.
This guy is a piece of work.
Confucius say man who act like 3 legged dog with no testicles soon will look for job with new sucker!
Confucius say man who rushes through turnstile going to Bangkok 🙂
Confucius say: coach who,listens too much to fans will soon be sitting with fans on game day.
—- Marv Levy (I’m sure I butchered it)
Steelers or Bills
Bills.
Good luck to the team who decides to sign this guy. Clear the locker room of this bad energy and bring in players who want to play football.
Imo, I think this is where it was always going to go when he signed the contract anyway. That’s why they drafted Pearsall. You don’t draft a receiver in the first round, pay your QB, and then keep two highly paid receivers, which is going to be the case when they have to extend Pearsall after next year. I thought he’d make it three years if they didn’t trade him before that, but he’s just getting out a year earlier. The Eagles and Dolphins are the only two teams with that setup in the league right now, and one is about to end while the other is on a razor’s edge week by week because AJ Brown is disgruntled. I’ll bet the Cowboys trade CD Lamb this off-season before they pay both him and Pickens. Just like Parsons, Lamb is not a Jerry guy.
Pearsall will have a 5th year option so I don’t think he will get a new contract until 2028. Niners haven’t been in a hurry to re-sign players until the last second.
Like Josh Gordon was an admitted certified crackhead with similar ability, and how many chances did he get after missing two whole seasons with substance issues? And not just chances, had Super Bowl contenders depending on him in the Patriots and Seahawks. But yep, Aiyuk isn’t going to get a market value contract if healthy, lmao. These upstanding team owners are bastians of morality.
He won’t
He will get another contract, but it won’t be anywhere near top of market.
I think there is probably a team that gives him a one year prove it deal. Its up to him to respond and its fair to question his work ethic.
Anything multi-year is high incentives and low guarantees.
Im a Bills fan starved for WRs and even I don’t see a fit. Its a bad culture fit for what the players appreciate.
Yeah, any team that signs Aiyuk is basically saying “He’ll be different for us” and that’s a huge gamble as is. I think most GMs and coaches know, but they also know that, with few exceptions, they’re all only a bad season or two from being fired. There are only a handful of exceptions that have enough security to where they don’t need to worry about that…at least, not for next year. If a coach or GM thinks that Aiyuk can win them games, they’re signing him. As you said, any multi-year deal will be incentive laden, and look better than it actually is.
Anything else is probably a one year deal for higher than the minimum, and respectable looking enough to appease Aiyuk’s ego. I don’t think that he’s fallen far enough, despite his negative press, where that second part won’t figure into negotiations. Usually NFL players get at least two messy divorces before that happens.
This was such a bad signing by what appears to be a well run team. Something about that GM and HC combo is just off with a few questionable signings and the annual injuries.
Giving away the farm for Trey Lance, signing a mediocre quarterback to a max deal and now this. Through it all, one conference championship, one Super Bowl and probably another playoff appearance. Just Wild.
Your numbers are off. They’ve been to the championship game four years and won two of them. I’m not a Shanahan fan, but lots of fan bases would kill for that hit rate.
Since Trey Lance was drafted they’ve been to a conference championship, a Super Bowl and will likely make the playoffs this year. I am not knocking the organization at all, I’m just saying for all of the screwups, it’s wild to me how successful they’ve still have been.
Arthur Blank is dumb enough to give him a big contract as they try to salvage the disastrous Penix pick by providing a partner for London.
I’m glad someone brought up Ridley. Another similar situation. He basically quit the Falcons and has had two monster contracts since then. Again, take your emotions out of it and look at it objectively. Unless his knee is arthritic or something, he’ll get what I said. You sound silly thinking he’ll sign for the vet minimum or something. I’ve seen prove-it deals and he’ll have to beg for a job. A receiver? In this passing league. No way. Twenty-eight mil minimum. Book it.
They’re publicizing this to ‘improve’ his prospects for another big buck job offer?
A named product with a crap attitude – who’ll give a dollar, can I get 2……..give me a half, cmon teams $1.50 you can’t go right, er wrong here….
of the thirty highest paid receivers.. only six have rings .. four of them come from two teams .. love to see gms keep overpaying for regular season production
So, you gave this idiot $120MIL just to play a game and things didn’t work out?