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Should the 49ers to Force Brandon Aiyuk to Play on his 5th-Year Option?

Aiyuk would be extremely upset, but he still would need to produce on the field so he could potentially get a big contract extension next year.

Grant Cohn

Aug 25, 2023; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk (11) during the game against the Los Angeles Chargers at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Sergio Estrada-USA TODAY Sports
Aug 25, 2023; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk (11) during the game against the Los Angeles Chargers at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Sergio Estrada-USA TODAY Sports / Sergio Estrada-USA TODAY Sports
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Technically, the 49ers don't have to give Brandon Aiyuk a contract extension just because he wants one.

If Aiyuk holds out for more money than the 49ers are willing to play him, they always can force him to play on the fifth-year option of his rookie deal because he's still under contract until 2025. And then they could franchise tag him next year. And then they could franchise tag him one more time after that if they're really feeling petty.

But what would Aiyuk playing on his fifth-year option actually look like? How would that affect the team?

Aiyuk would be extremely upset, but he still would need to produce on the field so he could potentially get a big contract extension next year. So would Kyle Shanahan call more passes than usual for Aiyuk just to keep him happy? If Shanahan doesn't call enough passes for Aiyuk, will he become disruptive and divisive in the locker room or after losses? Or will Shanahan bury Aiyuk in the pecking order to suppress his market value as he did in the playoffs? Remember, Aiyuk had fewer catches in the postseason than Christian McCaffrey, Deebo Samuel and Jauan Jennings.

Either way, it seems like keeping Aiyuk around on the fifth-year option would be a giant self-imposed distraction that a Super Bowl-contending team doesn't need. Maybe if they had won the Super Bowl last season they could endure a key player becoming a malcontent, but they lost the Super Bowl. It's going to be extremely hard for them to make it back even if Aiyuk is happy.

They don't need to make the journey even harder.

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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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