Much has been said about the San Francisco 49ers and their contract negotiations with star receiver Brandon Aiyuk, which has carried over into the later portion of the offseason, with the dispute turning very public.
One of the clear indicators of the dispute was a recent video posted by Aiyuk’s girlfriend where the star receiver was seen telling Washington Commanders quarterback and close friend Jayden Daniels that the 49ers don’t want him.
Addressing the situation publicly for the first time in a while, Aiyuk joined The Pivot recently to discuss how his situation has gone and why the tensions have evolved to their current stage.
What did he mean when revealing that the 49ers didn’t want him?
“They told me that that they didn’t believe we were on the same page and that they didn’t believe we were going to, and that was about it at that time,” Aiyuk said. “But, that’s part of it. That’s part of the contract negotiations trying to sway stuff in either direction, so whether that’s 100% true or not, I guess that’s still to find out.”
While talks have gone in a different direction over the past month, Aiyuk revealed that the two sides had a ton of positive dialogue earlier in the offseason, with the thought that he may even be signing an extension at any given point.
“Throughout this process, there were times where we were super close,” Aiyuk said. “I was telling my agent, ‘let me get my suit ready. I’m getting back to the Bay and getting right to sign this contract.’”
At this stage, it was before the wide receiver market exploded, but Aiyuk was still looking to get a deal done early on without worrying about how the market would change.
“When the season was over, I was back and forth with [the 49ers] every day. My agent called me an hour [every day],” Aiyuk said. “We were on the phone for an hour and a half, hour and 45 minutes, two hours, hitting up the phone. He called them, he called me back in an hour trying to bang this thing out.”
“I wasn’t worried about any other guy. I was just trying to get what I felt was appropriate for me at that time. That was the rush, that was early on in the offseason. We couldn’t come to an agreement at that time.”
After the two sides couldn’t reach an agreement, then came the wide receiver market explosion, with top players getting big-time deals, both via free agency and extensions.
That ultimately changed the market for Aiyuk and other receivers, leading us to the current stage of negotiations.
“And then, on top of that, other guys, [they] got paid. Their teams rewarded them. The market changed to what the market is, so, we weren’t able to get a deal done at that time where other guys wouldn’t affect the market and I could just do what I want to do, but even at that time, they still didn’t agree where I was at. So, we really haven’t agreed this whole entire time.”
“There’s days and times like in the past month or so where you could say, ‘yeah we’re pretty far apart.’”
However, the two sides did have what appeared to be a positive meeting earlier this week, and Aiyuk revealed that he will be at the 49ers facility to work out, likely meaning that talks are trending in a more positive direction ahead of training camp.
But, the wideout provided some good insight into how the contract negotiations changed this offseason as the market changed, with the 49ers never budging to meet Aiyuk’s demands overall.