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Kyle Shanahan didn’t need to officially shut the door on the 49ers’ relationship with Brandon Aiyuk on Saturday because everybody around the team has felt the pulling, pounding, and slamming for a while now.
The 49ers, who gave Aiyuk a four-year, $120-million deal only 15 months ago then — as Shanahan confirmed — voided $27 million in guaranteed money at the start of this year’s training camp, are on one side, focused on trying to get into the playoffs and not very much on their latest prodigal wide receiver.
Aiyuk, who tore multiple ligaments in his knee just months after signing the deal and hasn’t made it back to action, is on the other, staying silent and mostly invisible.
There’s no common ground, especially after The Athletic’s Friday report about the voiding and Aiyuk’s indication to NFLPA officials that he doesn’t intend to dispute it.
There are no urgent calls for diplomacy. There doesn’t appear to be much 49ers/Aiyuk communication. At this point, there doesn’t seem to be much desire for communication or diplomacy.
There’s just the inevitable breakup coming in the spring.
I suspect that the 49ers aren’t thinking much about an Aiyuk hello-goodbye cameo in the final weeks this season. And I’m pretty sure that Aiyuk’s wordless message is telling us that he’s focused on his inevitable move away from the 49ers next offseason, whether it’s via trade or the 49ers just outright releasing him to get the largest financial relief.
Does anybody care about the remainder of Aiyuk’s 49ers career? No, not so much. You don’t have strong feelings about something that’s basically been over for four months.
“I’m not getting much dialogue just personally between him and I,” Shanahan said at his presser on Saturday, “and have been told that it’s week-to-week. So each week I wait to see if he’s ready to come back for practice and haven’t got that answer yet.”
The inflection point has come and gone. And now we’re just dealing with the after-effects and lessons learned.
Here are five conclusions …
1. In the WR Drama Litany, Deebo Samuel’s issues over the previous few years were specifically with the 49ers’ negotiators before he was traded last spring. Aiyuk’s problems seem much more about being weary of Shanahan, John Lynch, and the 49ers’ philosophy, offensive system, and culture.
It’s not like Aiyuk can complain about his contract — he got almost exactly what he wanted last year and still wasn’t happy with things in general. This is a rupture so severe that not even a $120-million contract could bridge the gap.
Maybe some of this stretches back to his second season, when Aiyuk was mysteriously moved way down in the depth chart, admitted he was in Shanahan’s doghouse, then worked his way back into everybody’s good graces.
He and Shanahan just weren’t on the same wavelength then, and even after some extremely good Aiyuk seasons, they never really got in tune with each other. When Aiyuk cryptically complained about his usage in the Super Bowl 58 loss, that just raised everybody’s attennas even more.
But Shanahan and Lynch still nudged Jed York and Paraag Marathe to put the $120-million offer on the table. So it must be particularly stinging to Shanahan that even after Aiyuk was paid, he never seemed to get fully on board. In fact, just weeks after signing the deal, Aiyuk staged a weird tantrum in front of reporters when he came to the practice field in red shorts and Shanahan ordered him to change to the same black shorts everybody else was wearing that day.
There’s not a direct line from that demonstration to the voiding of his 2026 money, but the connection isn’t impossible to make.
“I’m not really there yet,” Shanahan said when I asked if he feels let down by the whole Aiyuk situation. “ … I know I went through that stuff and talked to him a lot about it back in July. But since July it’s been all about this season and hoping he would get healthy and he’s been working to get healthy and I’ve been waiting for him to come back when he is healthy.”
2. Both sides have always been on guard in this relationship.
Given the chance to talk to other teams about a trade during those odd 2024 negotiations, Aiyuk got a wandering eye — in particular, pining about possibly moving to the Washington Commanders or Pittsburgh Steelers. I’m sure those two teams will come up again in this discussion. Maybe it’s always been about Aiyuk preferring to end up on one of those teams.
Are they better situations than what he’s had with the 49ers? Obviously, that’s debatable. But it’s clearly what’s sketched out by his actions over the last few months.
Meanwhile, it seems likely that the 49ers’ negotiators included language in the new contract about rehabbing and medical protocol that Aiyuk didn’t follow after his injury.
Marathe is a great negotiator. There was no way he’d build a $120-million contract with a mercurial player that didn’t have financial and behavioral protections.
Shanahan was asked: Has Aiyuk missed meetings or rehabilitation sessions?
“Yeah, he has missed them,” Shanahan said. “There’s been other people on our team that have missed meetings before, but that doesn’t have anything to do with his contract.”
So what happened in July that led to the voiding?
“I’m not going to get into specifics of that,” Shanahan said. “There was a number of things from July that to me is more of a business side, dealing with lawyers and stuff and contracts and stuff that is really not my area of expertise.”
The result: At the end of this season, the 49ers will have paid about $49 million over the two fulfilled years of the deal. That’s a lot for a total of seven healthy games, but by voiding the 2026 money and releasing Aiyuk, the 49ers will be free of the remaining $71 million.
(Which is a reminder to always note the “true” guarantees in a reported deal as compared to the reported value of a contract. Aiyuk’s contract had a reported guarantee package of about $76 million, but much of that was tied to the 2026 option bonus that was just unwound.)
3. His devastating injury only put more distance between Aiyuk and the 49ers.
Unless you’re very connected to your teammates and coaches, it’s easy for any injured player to lose some touch with the spirit and every-day mood of the team.
And Aiyuk’s not the most talkative player — probably one of the quietest players in the locker room. He’s an emotional guy and very popular figure; but rehabbing on a side field can be an isolating thing for a player who already had some disconnect to at least part of the 49ers’ perspective.
4. The 49ers can go on without Aiyuk — because they’ve been operating without him for more than a year.
Ricky Pearsall, Jauan Jennings, Kendrick Bourne, and others at WR. George Kittle, Christian McCaffrey, Kyle Juszczyk, and Brock Purdy. Is that enough? The 49ers didn’t have a lot of these guys for big chunks of this season, and they’re 7-4 with an offense that seems primed to put up some big numbers.
Was Kittle specifically trying to underline that the 49ers’ offense will be fine without Aiyuk last Sunday after the big victory over Arizona? No. Kittle was just saying that the 49ers’ offense is well-positioned to carry things for this team.
But, yes, while raving about Purdy’s return and going through the list of notable contributors, the name Kittle didn’t mention was notable.
“We’re positioned right where we want to be,” Kittle said. “Our offense is basically healthy — we’re where we’re going to be at. If we can just keep rolling, keep making plays, Kyle keeps scheming it up for us. …
“(Pearsall is) going to pop off here in a second — I wish you guys could watch practice the whole week because he was just on fire the entire week. … Then when Ricky’s running his routes full speed, get Jauan involved, and then me and Christian and Juice, I think it’s just a very lethal offense.”
5. The 49ers now have more available cash to go after players to upgrade this roster next offseason.
The NFL real-world financial system is always more about available cash than reported salary-cap space — the 49ers’ roster reset last spring was all about saving cash — and voiding Aiyuk’s money gives the 49ers $27 million more to play with in 2026 than they thought they’d have.
They will actually take a cap hit because of the acceleration of previous bonus payments, but it won’t be enormous — especially if the 49ers designate Aiyuk as a post-June 1 release.
What could some extra cash get the 49ers in the 2026 offseason? Well, last spring it could’ve landed Davante Adams — who got $26 million guaranteed from the Rams. Or Cooper Kupp, who got $17.5 million guaranteed from the Seahawks.
There will be plenty of solid receivers available around that price range. The 49ers wouldn’t get into that market last spring because they were at their limit of cash spending, but they absolutely can and should do it this spring.
Or they could use the money for a veteran pass rusher. Or they could spurge and get a receiver and a pass rusher.
The 49ers can afford it. They can also draft a receiver in the first round, which is what I’d expect. They can draft a receiver in the third, fourth, and fifth rounds, too.
Maybe nobody they sign or draft will ever be as good as Aiyuk was two years ago, but then again, there’s a good chance that Aiyuk won’t, either. And if he does get there, it won’t be with the 49ers.