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Brandon Aiyuk Likely to Hold Out of 49ers Training Camp

This should come as no surprise.

Grant Cohn

Aug 18, 2020; Santa Clara, CA, USA; San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk (11) runs during training camp at SAP Performance Facility. Mandatory Credit: San Francisco 49ers/Pool Photo via USA TODAY Network
Aug 18, 2020; Santa Clara, CA, USA; San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk (11) runs during training camp at SAP Performance Facility. Mandatory Credit: San Francisco 49ers/Pool Photo via USA TODAY Network / Pool Photo-USA TODAY Sports
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This should come as no surprise.

Brandon Aiyuk reportedly will hold out of 49ers training camp as he awaits a lucrative contract extension. This news comes a few days after Aiyuk officially requested a trade, so he clearly doesn't want to play for the 49ers unless they give him the deal he wants.

Aiyuk seems to want more than $28 million per season. Currently, only 29 players in the NFL make that much money. So his negotiation is extremely tricky and could take a long time if it gets done. Last year, the 49ers gave Nick Bosa an extension that averages a whopping $34 million per season, but they didn't finalize the deal until four days before the season opener. As a result, Bosa held out of training camp and the preseason. So why wouldn't Aiyuk do the exact same thing? No one criticized Bosa when he held out. It's business.

But when Bosa returned, he wasn't in football shape and, as a result, he had a down season by his standards. He struggled against the run, wasn't an All Pro and didn't receive any votes for the Defensive Player of the Year Award which he won in 2022.

So if Aiyuk sits out all of training camp and signs an extension at the 11th hour, will he have a down season, too?

It's worth noting that Aiyuk has had just one All Pro season -- last year. And he didn't hold out training camp. He participated in every practice which allowed him to have the best season of his career. How well will he perform with no practice and an offseason filled with stress and financial uncertainty?

I guess we'll find out.

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Grant Cohn
GRANT COHN

Grant Cohn has covered the San Francisco 49ers daily since 2011. He spent the first nine years of his career with the Santa Rosa Press Democrat where he wrote the Inside the 49ers blog and covered famous coaches and athletes such as Jim Harbaugh, Colin Kaepernick and Patrick Willis. In 2012, Inside the 49ers won Sports Blog of the Year from the Peninsula Press Club. In 2020, Cohn joined FanNation and began writing All49ers. In addition, he created a YouTube channel which has become the go-to place on YouTube to consume 49ers content. Cohn's channel typically generates roughly 3.5 million viewers per month, while the 49ers' official YouTube channel generates roughly 1.5 million viewers per month. Cohn live streams almost every day and posts videos hourly during the football season. Cohn is committed to asking the questions that 49ers fans want answered, and providing the most honest and interactive coverage in the country. His loyalty is to the reader and the viewer, not the team or any player or coach. Cohn is a new-age multimedia journalist with an old-school mentality, because his father is Lowell Cohn, the legendary sports columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1979 to 1993. The two have a live podcast every Tuesday. Grant Cohn grew up in Oakland and studied English Literature at UCLA from 2006 to 2010. He currently lives in Oakland with his wife.

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