San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk wants to get paid, which has created a rather complicated situation for the 49ers.
San Francisco has a rather tenuous salary-cap situation, so it may not be able to afford to keep Aiyuk long term. The problem is, Aiyuk is preparing to enter the final year of his deal, so the Niners don’t have all that much time left to make a decision on him.
Aiyuk has made it pretty clear that he is not willing to take any hometown discounts, further muddying the circumstances for the 49ers.
Some are even wondering if Aiyuk even wants to remain in San Francisco, but former NFL wide receiver T.J. Houshmandzadeh—who is Aiyuk’s personal coach—says that he absolutely wants to stay in the Bay. He just wants to be compensated appropriately.
“I talked to BA. He don’t want to leave San Francisco,” Houshmandzadeh said on 95.7 The Game’s “Willard and Dibs” this week (via Tristi Rodriguez of NBC Sports Bay Area). “He just wants to get paid. Just very simple. He wants to be rewarded for the work that he has put in. And the casual fan, I don’t think they understand, to be a professional athlete, you get paid very well, and I’d be crazy not to say that, but man, the type of work you have to put in, day in, day out, ‘Oh, I would do it if I was making that type of money.’ Just go work out with a professional athlete for one week. Just go do it for one week and tell me would you feel the same way. It’s not easy.”
Aiyuk, who played his collegiate football at Arizona State, was selected by the Niners with the 25th overall pick of the 2020 NFL Draft.
He had a couple of a decent seasons to begin his career, but in 2022, Aiyuk broke out, catching 78 passes for 1,015 yards and eight touchdowns.
Then, this past year, Aiyuk was even better, hauling in 75 receptions for 1,342 yards and seven scores, establishing himself as the 49ers’ clear No. 1 receiver.
San Francisco is still trying to contend for a Super Bowl, so trading Aiyuk this offseason is probably not something it wants to do.
We’ll see if the Niners can reach some sort of agreement with Brandon Aiyuk in the coming months.
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