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What to Expect from 49ers WR Brandon Aiyuk This Season

Brandon Aiyuk is coming off by far the best season of his career. Will he replicate it this year?

Grant Cohn

Nov 15, 2021; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk (11) celebrates next to tight end George Kittle (85) after making a catch for a first down against the Los Angeles Rams in the second quarter at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Cary Edmondson-USA TODAY Sports
Nov 15, 2021; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk (11) celebrates next to tight end George Kittle (85) after making a catch for a first down against the Los Angeles Rams in the second quarter at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Cary Edmondson-USA TODAY Sports / Cary Edmondson-USA TODAY Sports
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Brandon Aiyuk is coming off by far the best season of his career. Will he replicate it this year?

Last year, Aiyuk averaged a career-best 17.9 yards per catch. He ranked second in the league in that statistic behind Steelers wide receiver George Pickens. Aiyuk's previous career best came in 2021 when he averaged 14.8 yards per reception so his performance improved dramatically last year.

And there were reasons for Aiyuk's improvement. First, he was in a contract year. He knew if he played his best, he would be rewarded with a contract extension that would make him one of the highest-paid players in the NFL.

So Aiyuk did everything in his power to have his best season. He went to all the OTA practices and was the 49ers' best player in training camp. He outworked his teammates. And the result was a second-team All Pro season and a contract extension that pays him $30 million per season.

But that was last year. This year, Aiyuk missed OTAs, minicamp, training camp and preseason. He actually hasn't practiced once. And that's because he was waiting for his extension, which he got. So his business plan worked. But at what cost?

For Aiyuk to have the best year of his career, he needed the full offseason to get himself in peak football shape. This year, he has done zero football activities with members of the organization. So it's unlikely he'll reach peak football shape until the second half of the year.

Don't be surprised if Aiyuk has a down season by his standards and falls short of 1,000 receiving yards for the first time since 2021.

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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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