a report by The Athletic\u2019s Michael Silver and Dianna Russini<\/a>, he told NFL Players Association representatives he wouldn\u2019t challenge the contract decision through a formal grievance.<\/p>\n\u201cI\u2019ve been coaching over 20 years, and I\u2019ve never been in a situation where a contract\u2019s been voided,\u201d Shanahan said last month. \u201cIt takes a lot of things to get a contract voided. Never dealt with that. It was unusual, but it\u2019s stuff I can\u2019t get into right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Aiyuk was the team\u2019s top pass catcher during its run to the Super Bowl in 2023, developing a strong connection with quarterback Brock Purdy and finishing with a career-high 1,342 receiving yards. Aiyuk agreed to a four-year, $120 million extension in August 2024, ending an often-messy, months-long contract dispute. He got off to a slow start that season, then had a multi-ligament knee injury in a Week 7 game against the Kansas City Chiefs.<\/p>\n
Aiyuk hasn\u2019t played since, and possibly could have helped in a season in which several other fleet-footed receivers \u2014 Ricky Pearsall, Jacob Cowing and Jordan Watkins \u2014 have been injured.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe more speed on the field you have, the better,\u201d Shanahan said Friday. \u201cSo when you\u2019re missing a lot of guys who can run, those are guys that you\u2019re possibly counting on, that definitely affects everything.\u201d<\/p>\n
With Aiyuk and the 49ers likely heading for a divorce in the offseason, and with Jauan Jennings and Kendrick Bourne heading for free agency, the team is eyeing Pearsall to be the foundation of its receiving corps for the future. Pearsall got off to a hot start this season, but he missed six games with a knee injury and has tallied 20 receiving yards in the three games since.<\/p>\n
Watkins, Cowing and veteran Demarcus Robinson are also under contract for next season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The San Francisco 49ers on Saturday placed Brandon Aiyuk on the reserve\/left squad list, ending his 2025 season…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":347397,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[349,560,99],"class_list":["post-347396","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-nfl","tag-san-francisco-49ers","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347396","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=347396"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347396\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/347397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=347396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=347396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=347396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}