The San Francisco 49ers\/Brandon Aiyuk saga has been an ugly slugfest for over a year now. Enough is enough. <\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t![\"San](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/75080-usatsi_24212219.jpg\")
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSan Francisco 49ers wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk (11) runs after a catch against the New York Jets during the fourth quarter at Levi\u2019s Stadium.
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDarren Yamashita-Imagn Images<\/p>\n
It\u2019s time for the San Francisco 49ers<\/a> to free Brandon Aiyuk<\/a>. And, more importantly, free themselves. <\/p>\n The saga between the 49ers and the maligned wide receiver has been several years in the making, going all the way back to 2024 amid a contentious contract negotiation. There was a trade request, a hold-in, reported trade momentum, and then what seemed like a breakthrough. Aiyuk signed a 4-year, $120 million contract to stay in San Francisco before posting 25 receptions for 374 yards in 7 games in 2024. We haven\u2019t seen him since, other than for all the wrong reasons. That includes open flirtation with the Washington Commanders, a concerning speeding incident that has since yielded an active warrant<\/a>, and alleged missed rehab sessions with the team<\/a> from the knee injury that cost him most of 2024. Don\u2019t forget the drama, too. Plenty of drama. <\/p>\n Now, with the dead of summer bearing down on us, Aiyuk is starting to make some noise as he continues in his bid to leave San Francisco. <\/p>\n It\u2019s time for the San Francisco 49ers to give Brandon Aiyuk what he wants<\/p>\n Aiyuk can say whatever he would like at this point. His stock is already tanked to the umpteenth degree and, thanks to that 2024 contract extension, he\u2019s owed $27 million in 2026. But due to his off-field conduct, that money is no longer guaranteed \u2014\u00a0and the 49ers are sure to not pay it either way. <\/p>\n But let me ask you this: what NFL franchise in their right mind would trade anything (at all) for a receiver who hasn\u2019t played a game in 20 months on the heels of a major knee injury? The injury isn\u2019t the only overhead, either. That warrant stemming from speeding? It was issued just last week.<\/p>\n The answer here is obvious. No one. Not even the Washington Commanders, who Aiyuk has made no bones about his desire to play for. Not with $27 million in non-guaranteed money lingering as overhead.<\/p>\n A Brandon Aiyuk trade isn\u2019t coming<\/p>\n The contract is un-tradeable. And if the 49ers are milking this situation in order to get something for the maligned receiver, we\u2019ve reached the point where the compensation isn\u2019t even worth the headache that comes with his continued affiliation from the team. Even if the affiliation is from afar. <\/p>\n I also understand that, currently, the 49ers are facing no ramifications for holding Aiyuk because he\u2019s on the \u201cDid Not Report\u201d list. There\u2019s no cap ramifications. And, as previously mentioned, they\u2019ve already had his 2026 guarantees nullified. But being petty only carries you so far. This is still a dead-end road. <\/p>\n So from that standpoint, I agree with Aiyuk. Stop running. Not from a belt, though. From the inevitable. It\u2019s time for the 49ers to put this sideshow behind them \u2014 regardless of whatever reasons they\u2019ve continued to string this situation along. We all know how this ends. Release Brandon Aiyuk and let\u2019s all be done with it, already. <\/p>\n \t\t\t San Francisco 49ers News<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The San Francisco 49ers\/Brandon Aiyuk saga has been an ugly slugfest for over a year now. Enough is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":351230,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[1818,43673,25025,101,296,103,102,104,106,105,140196],"class_list":["post-351229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-49ers","tag-49ers-news","tag-brandon-aiyuk","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-49ers","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news","tag-wildcat"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=351229"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351229\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/351230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=351229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=351229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=351229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/USATSI_27816342-scaled.jpg\")
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