The 49ers have voided Brandon Aiyuk’s guaranteed money. A decision made after he stopped coming to the facility, communicating with the team, and long after the team had already lost several contributors in 2025 free agency. By the time all of that happened, the 49ers weren’t just losing players — they were losing margin for error. And it all traces back to one decision: that damn contract.
Paying Aiyuk when they did — and living with the uncertainty that followed — forced the team into tougher personnel
decisions than they otherwise would have had to make. When they needed to get the money together for Aiyuk’s deal, not to mention get things ready for quarterback Brock Purdy’s extension, it’s obvious some other players had to go to free agency to get their worth.
Here are some of the players to leave the 49ers in 2025:
- Wide Receiver Deebo Samuel (traded)
- Cornerback Charvarius Ward
- Linebacker Dre Greenlaw
- Guard Aaron Banks
- Safety Talanoa Hufanga
Four of those names are homegrown draft picks, and it’s safe to say money had some sort of influence on why they didn’t get an extension—big or small. While the 49ers are going to get salary cap space back at some point with the Aiyuk situation, they won’t get a redo on any of those departures.
This doesn’t mean that without an Aiyuk extension, any of those names listed would be on the 49ers another three to five years. Banks went to the Green Bay Packers for a $77 million contract. Who knows if the 49ers would have given him that money even if they had it available? What about Jauan Jennings? We are all familiar with the drama he had in the 2025 offseason. Had the 49ers not kept Aiyuk, would they have been able to work out a deal for Jennings?
Hindsight is always 20/20. Maybe the 49ers play out the 2025 offseason the same way, just without the Aiyuk deal. Or maybe they keep Banks, and the interior offensive line isn’t as much of a need in 2026. Perhaps they hold onto Hufanga and don’t let Malik Mustapha take his lumps as a rookie.
Lots of maybes. But that’s the point—options went out the window when the Aiyuk deal was signed. The 49ers are going to get a chunk back. It’s not a bad take to think the 49ers regretted that contract five minutes after the ink dried. Aiyuk didn’t just hurt the 49ers financially; his contract had an impact on the 49ers’ future. A future they mortgaged for him at the expense of others.
Had the 49ers not given Aiyuk his $120 million deal, would you have done things differently with the free agents? Who would you have kept around? Or would you still have made the roster moves the 49ers did and had $120 million in reasons to be active in free agency later?
