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Do the 49ers Think Brandon Aiyuk is Immature?

It seems like the 49ers' issue with Aiyuk is personal.

Grant Cohn

Feb 5, 2024; Las Vegas, NV, USA; San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk (11) during Super Bowl LVIII Opening Night at Allegiant Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
Feb 5, 2024; Las Vegas, NV, USA; San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk (11) during Super Bowl LVIII Opening Night at Allegiant Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports / Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
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The 49ers have made it their business to insult Brandon Aiyuk as much as possible this offseason.

He's one of their best players and he's coming off a second-team All Pro season, and yet they've offered him a contract extension that reportedly is worth $26 million per season. That's a lot of money, but it's significantly less than the extension that the Dolphins just gave to their no. 2 receiver, Jaylen Waddle. He's now earning $28 million per season and he plays in a tax-free state.

So why won't the 49ers pay Aiyuk what he's worth? And why haven't they engaged in contract talks with him since May?

It seems like the 49ers' issue with Aiyuk is personal.

They can't have an issue with him as a player -- he does everything right on the field. He blocks his butt off and he's an elite route runner who's an extremely efficient deep threat. And yet there's something about him that gives them pause.

Remember, Aiyuk played a ton as a rookie because there were injuries and the 49ers needed him to play. In his second season, he didn't perform well in training camp, and the coaching staff seemed to think he had an attitude of entitlement, so they put him in the doghouse and made him split playing time with Trent Sherfield and Mohamed Sanu.

Since then, Aiyuk mostly has kept quiet and done his job. Until this offseason. Suddenly, he has been extremely vocal for the first time in his career, and he has been vocal about his displeasure with the organization.

Is this why the 49ers haven't upped their offer to Aiyuk yet? Are they concerned about what he'll become if they make him a made man?

I guess we'll never know for sure.

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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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