{"id":813210,"date":"2026-07-20T23:41:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T23:41:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/813210\/"},"modified":"2026-07-20T23:41:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T23:41:16","slug":"donte-whitner-gives-honest-take-on-brandon-aiyuks-nfl-future-amid-49ers-wrs-social-media-videos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/813210\/","title":{"rendered":"Donte Whitner Gives Honest Take on Brandon Aiyuk&#8217;s NFL Future Amid 49ers WR&#8217;s Social Media Videos"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">Former NFL star Donte Whitner believes Brandon Aiyuk&#8217;s NFL career has run its course. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">The former San Francisco 49ers safety weighed in on Aiyuk&#8217;s social media activity on Monday, saying that the wide receiver let the money get to him. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">&#8220;I thought he should&#8217;ve just shut his mouth, he should&#8217;ve just worked, he should&#8217;ve showed up, even if he had disdain for the front office and the players and the coaches,&#8221; he said. &#8220;&#8230; I truly believe he&#8217;s played his last down in the NFL.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">Aiyuk has spent the past several months making social media posts calling out the 49ers front office and coaching staff. Before he took things public, he and the Niners had gone back and forth internally, ultimately leading to general manager John Lynch\u00a0<a class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__ui__link__medium_strong css-lu48cp\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nfl.com\/news\/john-lynch-safe-to-say-brandon-aiyuk-has-played-last-snap-with-49ers\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">saying in January<\/a>, &#8220;It&#8217;s safe to say he&#8217;s played his last snap with the Niners.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">While Aiyuk&#8217;s social media posts have mainly been focused on dissing the 49ers, he also had numerous posts expressing his interest in joining the Washington Commanders. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">He seemingly burnt that bridge, however, when he called out Jayden Daniels earlier this month. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">More recently, he criticized the NFL Players&#8217; Association for how they have handled the situation. Aiyuk <a class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__ui__link__medium_strong css-lu48cp\" href=\"https:\/\/bleacherreport.com\/articles\/25456000-49ers-brandon-aiyuk-rips-nflpa-social-media-photo-amid-commanders-contract-push\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">accused<\/a> the union of trying &#8220;to start a smear campaign to try and tarnish [Aiyuk&#8217;s] NIL.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">His posts reportedly have led to NFL teams wanting nothing to do with him. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">&#8220;He continues to nuke his job prospects at this point,&#8221; ESPN&#8217;s Jeremy Fowler\u00a0<a class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__ui__link__medium_strong css-lu48cp\" href=\"https:\/\/bleacherreport.com\/articles\/25451327-insensible-brandon-aiyuk-ripped-nfl-insiders-after-new-ig-videos-beefing-jayden-daniels\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">said<\/a>\u00a0on\u00a0SportsCenter\u00a0earlier this month. &#8220;I&#8217;ve talked to several teams about Brandon Aiyuk, trying to give him the benefit of the doubt. Is there any sort of sound strategy he&#8217;s employing here? And they can&#8217;t think of anything other than this is just sort of insensible.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">If Aiyuk&#8217;s career is over, he will have left a lot of money on the table. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">The 49ers <a class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__ui__link__medium_strong css-lu48cp\" href=\"https:\/\/bleacherreport.com\/articles\/25302152-what-brandon-aiyuks-release-would-mean-49ers-salary-cap-amid-nfl-rumors\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">voided<\/a> the remainder of his contract in November. That deal would have paid him $27 million this season, $28 million in 2027 and $30 million in 2028. If Aiyuk is released by the 49ers and is able to sign with another team, the odds of him getting that kind of money are slim. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">Aiyuk may be a former All-Pro-caliber receiver, but he has a lot to prove after not playing for a year and a half. If he continues his social media activity, he may not get the chance to prove himself. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former NFL star Donte Whitner believes Brandon Aiyuk&#8217;s NFL career has run its course. The former San Francisco&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":813211,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[559],"tags":[64,63,593,85],"class_list":["post-813210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/813210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=813210"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/813210\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/813211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=813210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=813210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=813210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}