Unpacking recent developments with Aiyuk, 49ers
Mike Florio discusses what's been going on between Brandon Aiyuk and the San Francisco 49ers, including recent videos posted by Aiyuk that suggest he may be headed elsewhere.
Video Transcript
We don't know what's going on with Brandon Ayuk, but it's a pretty basic situation.
The 49ers have been squatting on his contract because they can.
They owe him nothing for 2026 guaranteed.
26 million plus is what he's due to make, and it would become fully guaranteed if he's on the active roster as of week one.
It also becomes fully guaranteed if he shows up at practice and suffers a serious injury that knocks him out for the season.
All he had to do was show up during the offseason program, and he likely would have been cut.
He didn't.
The 49ers have squatted on him trying to trade him.
It got ugly last weekend.
He posted a video Sunday and then another one Tuesday attacking the 49ers, calling them stupid, calling them dumb, saying they're afraid.
They don't want him to go to another team because they're afraid of what he's going to do.
On Friday, he deleted both of those videos.
And then on Sunday There was a new video.
And when you couple that with the deleted videos, which maybe weren't all of Branch, this new video, take a look.
This new video, coming to an end zone near you.
He's dancing.
There's music playing.
He seems happy.
He's got a robe and boxer shorts.
And it could be when you combine the deletion of the prior videos, two days later, the posting of this video, it could be that he's under the impression that the 49ers are going to release him.
And they should.
They've proven their point.
They don't want him on the team.
They tried to trade him.
The leverage was you get him for the offseason program and he'll be ready to go, more ready to go for you for the regular season if you give us something for him now.
That would have required working out a new deal for Ayuk as well.
And he'll probably sign for peanuts or close to it.
Watch the commanders at the most likely destination.
There have been plenty of breadcrumbs tying that together, including the fact that Ayuk and Jaden Daniels were at one point teammates at Arizona State.
So I get the impression based upon Ayuk's deletion of the videos and the posting of the new one that he's under the impression something good is going to happen by way of getting his freedom and having the ability to sign with another team.
None of it matters until training camp.
Now, I guess you can get yourself a playbook and there's some limited stuff you can do to prepare for training camp.
It's just time for the 49ers.
They proved their point.
They got their pound of flesh.
They can move on now and do the right thing at this point because they're going to cut him anyway.
And no one's going to trade for him.
There's no extra leverage now.
Now, if he doesn't show up for training camp, they can put him on the reserve, did not report list and just squat on him indefinitely.
He's got to show up.
If he's not cut before training camp, he's got to show up.
And the 49ers shouldn't want that.
You don't want a sideshow like when Brett Favre showed up in 2008 after he'd retired and decided he wasn't retired and the Packers were reluctant to release him or trade him to the Vikings, the Bears or the Lions.
He showed up and it was awkward.
And I don't think the 49ers want that.
No one should want that.
