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Is 49ers WR Brandon Aiyuk Taking Too Much Heat for his Slow Start?

Through three games this season, he has just 11 catches for a measly 119 yards and no touchdowns. He has fewer receiving yards than Jauan Jennings who gets paid $8 million per season, and Deebo Samuel who has played only two games.

Grant Cohn

Sep 22, 2024; Inglewood, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk (11) misses catching a pass against the defense of Los Angeles Rams cornerback Tre'Davious White (27) during the first half at SoFi Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images
Sep 22, 2024; Inglewood, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk (11) misses catching a pass against the defense of Los Angeles Rams cornerback Tre'Davious White (27) during the first half at SoFi Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images / Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images
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It's easy to dump on Brandon Aiyuk these days.

He put a target on his back when he held out all offseason because he wanted $30 million per season instead of $26 million per season. He had every right to demand what he's worth, but now he has to produce. And so far, he hasn't.

Through three games this season, he has just 11 catches for a measly 119 yards and no touchdowns. He has fewer receiving yards than Jauan Jennings who gets paid $8 million per season, and Deebo Samuel who has played only two games. Aiyuk's production is embarrassing.

And this troubling trend started last season. In Aiyuk's past 7 games, which include the postseason, he has 44 targets, 23 catches, 293 yards, 1 touchdown and an 81 quarterback rating when targeted.

Not good.

It seems the NFL has caught on to how Kyle Shanahan likes to use Aiyuk and now those two must adjust. "They just know what we want to do, what we like to do, me and Purdy especially," Aiyuk said at his locker on Wednesday.

To be fair, Aiyuk was wide open deep down the middle of the field for a potential game-winning touchdown catch late against the Rams and Brock Purdy simply froze. Saw Aiyuk wide open and decided not to throw him the ball. That was Purdy's mistake. So Aiyuk's numbers could be better.

But he also has two drops in three games and has taken a backseat to Jennings in the offense. Aiyuk isn't asserting himself the way a wide receiver who makes $30 million per season should. And that's on him.

But the 49ers should take some heat for Aiyuk's dip in production, too. They saw it begin to dip last season and paid him anyway. That's on them.

Published
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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