The San Francisco 49ers are not short on drama. Ever. During the past 48 hours, we’ve read about Brandon Aiyuk having his guarantees voided and how Kyle Shanahan feels about the situation.
The timing of
every news item is odd. Why now? Why are we just finding out about something that potentially caused a rift between both sides back in July, during late Thanksgiving?
If you watch Shanahan, it’s evident that he was passing the buck. It was a head coach who sounded like anything contractually related was out of his hands, which is why Shanahan kept using the term unusual. Does Kyle no longer have the power he once did? Is this debacle on the higher-ups in the front office? We’ll never know.
One thing we do know is that most fans are siding with the organization and not the player. That’s always been a bizarre stance to me, especially with how little information we have. It’ll be interesting to see how fans who never want Aiyuk to play again change their tune if he returns in the coming months.
According to NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo on Sunday morning, Aiyuk playing again is a possibility:
49ers wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk, whom, as The Athletic reported the other day, had $27 million in guarantees for next season voided.
But that was a couple of months ago. Since then, the 49ers have been committed to getting Aiyuk healthy and back on the field. So, just because next year has been voided, doesn’t mean that this was necessarily going to be a divorce from either side.
Now, my understanding is that the belief is close to being cleared and his return from that ACL injury. But, he hasn’t got it yet, and like Kyle Shanahan has said every week, we’re kind of looking to see when that clearance is coming and when he’s going to go back to practice. It hasn’t happened yet. Still hope that he is going to be back on the field for the 49ers.
2026 has yet to be written. We shall see. If he gets back and plays well, he could be a 49er next year. But right now, it’s sort of in limbo.
It was odd that no national reporter addressed Friday’s news. Like, at all. That’s not to say Dianni Russini or Mike Silver were wrong or jumped the gun, but everything about this subject has been of.
The assumption that the 49ers are better off without Aiyuk is strange. How quickly we forget what he did in 2023, and how the offense was elevated with an elite wide receiver. We are talking about a team that is unlikely to get many stops in the playoffs or against playoff teams. Why would they be better off without another playmaker who can win at every level?
The best thing for this team, this year, is for Aiyuk to play. Whether that happens remains to be seen.
