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Interpreting 49ers WR Brandon Aiyuk's Cryptic TikTok Comments

Is it true that the 49ers don't want him back?

Grant Cohn

Oct 8, 2023; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk (11) warms up before the game against the Dallas Cowboys at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Darren Yamashita-USA TODAY Sports
Oct 8, 2023; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk (11) warms up before the game against the Dallas Cowboys at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Darren Yamashita-USA TODAY Sports / Darren Yamashita-USA TODAY Sports
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"They said they don't want me back. I swear."

That's what 49ers wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk told Washington Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels on FaceTime in a TikTok video Aiyuk posted. This came a day after ESPN's Jeremy Fowler reported that contract negotiations between Aiyuk and the 49ers have stalled and that there isn't optimism that a deal will get done.

So when Aiyuk said, "They don't want me back," it's probably fair to assume he was talking about the 49ers even though he didn't mention them explicitly.

But is it true that the 49ers don't want him back?

General manager John Lynch has said multiple times on the record that he respects Aiyuk and wants him to finish his career with the 49ers. It also has been reported that the 49ers have offered Aiyuk a contract extension that is worth roughly $26 million per season. So they clearly want him back, but they want him at their price.

I think what Ayuk is saying is if they don't meet him at his price, then they don't really want him because they're not serious about extending his contract. They would rather save a few million dollars per season than keep Aiyuk around long term.

Aiyuk isn't asking for more than he's worth. He's being fair. The 49ers are asking him to take less than he's worth and threatening to force him to play on the fifth-year option if he doesn't comply. In Aiyuk's mind, that probably means the 49ers don't want him back.

They certainly seem to think he's replaceable.

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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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