While the 49ers’ Christian McCaffrey extension ensures they have one fewer key player who would be in a contract year come 2025, Brandon Aiyuk remains unsigned beyond this season. Attached to a fifth-year option, the standout wide receiver continues to stay away from his team.
Aiyuk joined CeeDee Lamb by failing to report for his team’s minicamp Tuesday. Aiyuk did not show for the start of 49ers three-day camp, per NBC Sports Bay Area’s Matt Maiocco. Should the two-time 1,000-yard receiver skip all three days of the mandatory offseason session — as it certainly looks like he will — a $104K fine would be levied. Aiyuk has missed all of San Francisco’s offseason program thus far.
Players who miss OTAs usually show for minicamp, but it is not especially rare to see someone engaged in big-ticket extension talks to steer clear of the June session. Nick Bosa and Deebo Samuel each attended San Francisco’s minicamp (though, neither participated) while in contract negotiations, respectively, over the past two years. The 49ers reached extensions with both players before Week 1. As of now, Aiyuk is tied to a guaranteed $14.12MM option salary.
The wide receiver market has shifted this offseason, with the top average salary changing hands three times since April. Amon-Ra St. Brown, A.J. Brown and now Justin Jefferson have topped Tyreek Hill‘s $30MM-per-year number, and the Vikings ventured into unprecedented guarantee territory to lock down their All-Pro talent. Jefferson raised the full guarantee bar at WR from $52MM (Hill) to $88.7MM. The could conceivably produce sticker shock from other teams negotiating with receivers. Aiyuk would not be a candidate to top Jefferson’s salary, but he is believed to be eyeing a deal in the $30MM-per-year neighborhood.
A May report indicated Aiyuk was targeting an extension worth slightly more than the $30.05MM-AAV deal the Lions gave St. Brown. Prior to the Jefferson contract, Aiyuk-49ers talks were not progressing. The 49ers passed on trading Aiyuk during the draft, though teams inquired; it was believed San Francisco targeted a mid-first-round pick for the 2020 draftee. John Lynch effectively put a stop to Aiyuk and Samuel trade talks, though neither player should be considered a lock to be a 49er this season.
The team’s first-round selection of Ricky Pearsall does appear based on a future in which one of the Samuel-Aiyuk pair is elsewhere, but for now, the team understandably seems keen on reloading and attempting another Super Bowl run with its core skill-position pieces in place alongside Brock Purdy‘s rookie contract. With Purdy extension-eligible in 2025, it appears likely Samuel or Aiyuk will be elsewhere. The 49ers still have some time on this front, holding exclusive negotiating rights with Aiyuk until March 2025 and the franchise tag at its disposal.
With no deal at minicamp, this saga does appear headed toward training camp, the window the 49ers have used to reach several key extensions during the Lynch-Kyle Shanahan era.
Play your deal. Skip the voluntary stuff, sure. Be there for when you said you’d be there. Low character men.
The rookie contract that is a forced amount by the league and doesn’t matter if you’ve out produced 3 of the 5 guys drafted before you? (and every last bum drafted after you) Yeah he should definitely show up and agree with being underpaid….
The rookie contract is agreed by both the league and the NFLPA. He has problem w/ the rookie wage scale, take it up w/ his union.
1 player has absolutely no chance to change the CBA but yeah sure….
Also on top of that, the rookie wages are never a priority considering the NFLPA is guys already in the league and past that. It’s common sense that they’ll give up money for the rookies who have zero say before they give up something they want. It’s life.
49ers pay up or watch him walk. It’s a business, not a video game.
Teams have almost all the leverage. Holding out is one of the only tactics available to guys have. Calling them low character for using it is silly, especially when teams often end up extending them. It’s just how these things work, whether it offends your sensibilities or not.
Also it’s funny for someone who calls himself Macbeth to treat skipping a couple days of NFL minicamp like it’s a great sign of villainy.
Certain people have conditioned their entire lives to believe that their character, honor, manhood, etc. are based entirely on how totally subservient they can be to their bosses at their own expense.
1. Players pay a union to negotiate a rookie wage scale. They literally pay someone else to negotiate the deals they sign on top of that with agents.
2. If you sign that deal and want to keep playing you should honor that deal and all of its commitments including mini camp.
That deal was signed before he was even in the league. Players holding out on their fifth year rookie deal option don’t get fined for holding out. Maybe that should tell you it’s seen as understandable and not a big deal.
He was “in the league” once he declared and was subsequently drafted.
Honor the deal. Man up.
Negotiate for the salary you deserve. Man up.
Should teams refuse to pay players who underperform until they renegotiate?
Negotiate a deal, sure. Honor the deal you signed while you do it.
Teams do this stuff all the time. They threaten players with release if they don’t take pay cuts. They cut players. They sit players for worse players to keep them from hitting incentives or triggering options. They come to players for restructures to help them out of cap jams of their own creation. When late round picks get performance-based raises determined by the league, teams sometimes cut them to avoid paying them a higher salary.
I’m glad you brought that up, thank you.
Everything you mentioned is agreed on before stepping on the field.
Players can opt to not take restructured deals, sign deals with incentives, or options.
Everything you mentioned is simply the team using the power they are per.itted to use as given by the agent, union, and player.
If a player is cut they are paid the salary they are agreed on for guarantees which again, is agreed on beforehand.
And players on their fifth year option can hold out without even being fined, which is also agreed upon.
They *can* be waived. There is a difference there. Honor the deal.
There’s no honor in NFL contracts. Players have to look out for themselves, because the league sure won’t. You can get mad at every single player who does this or you can recognize it as a part of how that business works.
I recognize that a contract mutually agreed on by two parties where if the team does not abide by it the player is protected by law whereas the team is vilified as a money hungry big business.
That is the delta here.
The team has leverage in almost every way. Even when his contract expires, the team can franchise the player, which would be a contract they *don’t* mutually agree upon. And a player can suffer an injury that eradicates his only shot to make most of the money he’ll ever make, whereas teams don’t face nearly the same kind of risk. So I don’t begrudge a player sitting out a few practices to get the contract he’s earned. Especially from a team that just gave an all-time high contract to a 28-year old running back with an extensive injury history who’s already gotten paid.
Again, this is becoming circular at this point.
The franchise tag is something agreed upon by a union which is paid for by the players agreed on by the league and used by the teams after all of that.
A player can insure themselves against injury, this is a real thing.
For every player who has earned or outperformed a contract there are dozens who underperform on their contracts where the team is oigayed to pay the lpw performing player what was mutually agreed on. Those don’t make headlines because no one covers bums.
It may be agreed upon, but it’s another huge piece of leverage the owners have over players. Owners have huge amounts of control over where players go and how much they get paid. I root for the guys who take on the risk, do the actual job we love to watch, and have lifelong health problems as a result to get paid while they can. You can root for management.
I root for people holding to their words.
@66 The Number
Well if being totally subservient to the boss results in $14.12MM being deposited into the bank account…a lot of people are going to want to sign on for some of that slave labor 🙂
Yeah, but those people wouldn’t be working for more than $10 million less than their market value.
It’s amusing how the human mind works. You know your earning more than 95% of the countries population but you see another guy getting more money than you while apparently doing less and suddenly you’re thinking “I’m being screwed” 🙂
People generally like to make competitive salaries for the jobs they do. Why should people whose job it is to be competitive not?
Greed should have limits like everything else. When you have enough money to last you a dozen lifetimes why keep insisting on more?
I’d ask the same question of billionaire owners pushing for extended seasons just to make more. And Aiyuk does not have enough money to last a dozen lifetimes.
Would you? They decided to pay the 7th WR on the depth chart over the top one… I’d never come back.
How on earth does your comment make sense? Got news for you, your comment ain’t better. Never is.
My comments have more substance than your whole family tree
I would totally come back. Don’t want to end up like Le’Veon Bell.
Bell was a running back they’d worked so hard he was bound for a drop off, and people were starting to figure out big contracts for second contract running backs aren’t the best investment. Aiyuk’s not really in the same situation.
Rich and retired at 32? I’d love to be leveon bell…
Don’t think he is that rich anymore. Guy has been trying boxing so why get head bashed in if we’ll off?
Apparently L’Veon didn’t realize the wage scale at Dairy Queen didn’t match that of the NFL…lol.
Because he’s bored and has nothing better to do… It’s what rich people do, stuff we wouldn’t think to.
Remember the stupid submarine that tried going to the Titanic? Lol. Rich people stuff.
Would I rather be a -$30M+/yr player on a average team that might make the playoffs or a $25M+/yr player on a Championship contender? Both contracts would be life and family generational changing. Personally, I’d rather take less for the chance for the ring, but I’d also be trying every ploy to make as much as possible. Which is to say, I think he’ll sign with the Niners in the end and anything between now and then is just media fodder.
Not me. Give me the extra $5m a year. No guarantees you’re winning the SB, but win at the bank.
Why is it such a a bad thing for a team to expect someone to live up to the contract they signed? No one forced them to sign the contract in the first place. The player could theoretically take the degree they earned in college and go to work in whatever field their degree is in. If you think you are being treated unfairly then retire and get a real job. But when you sign your name to a contract you are legally bound to the terms of that agreement. Is it ridiculous to expect someone to actually do the job they were contracted to do? If the man building your house gets 3/4 done then demands more money is that legal? You pick out your groceries and at checkout suddenly Publix decides to raise prices by 20%. Is that legal? He signed his name and accepted payments for 4 years and now he wants more, so he’s going to sit at home and pout? If he really stunk up the place would the team expect a refund? The team showed faith he would be be a good player by paying him up front, and now because he has become the player the team hoped he would be he repays them by withholding his services. It all boils down to his name is on a contract for a certain amount, he’s withholding his services, and refusing comply with said contract. If he feels it is unfair to hold him to the terms of the contract he is free to retire which would terminate the contract and he can be free to pursue his new vocation. In other words, you’re a man playing a child’s game and making a good living doing it. Sorry if there’s no sympathy out here for you because you only make 20 million a year for PLAYING a game while the rest of us actually work in manufacturing, construction, etc. And we don’t have teams of doctors, physical therapists, dieticians, chefs to cater to us and make sure that we are ready to go to work the next day. Boo Hoo for you, you are so put up on. Show up for work, do your job, and quit crying.
No one forced him to sign the contract? OK. He signed the only contract he was allowed to sign, now he’s using one of the only negotiating tactics he has. Players holding out on their fifth year options aren’t even fined for doing so. If he sits out actual games, he’ll forfeit his salary. He gave the 49ers a ton of surplus value over the four years of his rookie contract and now he doesn’t want to get injured before signing his first even close to market value contract. Seems understandable to me.
He didn’t HAVE to sign anything. No one forced him to do anything.
Literally only way he could play in the NFL. Now he has more agency and he’s using it.
But he DIDN’T HAVE to play. That’s what I’m trying to say. No one forces someone to play in the NFL. He could walk away and get another job.
And now he DOESN’T HAVE to show up for minicamp if they’re going to leave him dangling on a way below market fifth year option while they shell out money for an older running back with a long injury history. I’m a football fan, so I want the best football players playing football. This “He could get another job” reasoning is goofy. The market rate for the man’s labor is over $25 million a year and plenty of teams would be happy to pay him that. It’s very likely that the 49ers are one of them and this is just a speed bump in the process.
He does have to show up, contractually. There are penalties for not doing so. I am not sure why people cheerlead breaking contracts. it’s not like a union strike where negotiations for an expired/expiring agreement have gone poorly. This is an actual, signed, agreed upon contract where the player is now in breach.
If there was a window contractor working on your home that heard the guy down the street got paid more so they decided to not show up and finish the job until you paid them more, would you be so passionately defending them breaching contract?
How is it different because these are entertainers?
What’s the use of collective bargaining and contracts if good players can just quit on them? He should just play out his contract and get a better deal somewhere else if he is so unhappy with his team. He should quit the NFL if he doesn’t like the negotiated rules for rookies, or work with the union to allow up and coming rookies after him have a better experience and him to get a bigger bag in FA.
Stop the childish social media and sitting out pouting.
Do you really not get why those aren’t similar? Have you ever had an exclusive contract with a window contractor that prevented them from getting a multi-year deal elsewhere? Do window contractors have a very limited window in which to make all their money and risk career ending injuries every day they go to work?
Everyone involved in negotiating the contracts and the collective bargaining agreement knows all about the risk and unique situation involved here. The guarantees are the reward for the risk taken. All labor that is physical and relies on peak performance and involves risk is like this, and it is not new. Everyone involved knows that you have a rookie contract which is your one shot to prove it, and if you don’t get hurt AND prove it, you get a bag. Why should only a few people not have to prove it all the way through?
Most players of his caliber don’t have to prove it through all four years plus the fifth year option. Young, star level players usually get extended–or traded to a team that will extend them–before they have to play out the fifth year option.
This is silly. The league expectation is that star players will want a new contract before the start of their last season. It’s in the best interest of the team and player that it happens. For the team the risk of Aiyuk playing out his rookie contract without an extension is that he goes nuts, lives up to his potential and his price next year is more than it is today and being an unrestricted free agent any team with more cap space can sign him. For Aiyuk the risk is that he goes to mini camp, tears and ACL and loses all possibility of a huge contract this season or next. Holdouts and contract negotiations are good for the player and the team, all of the media and online crap is just negotiating tactics. Don’t fool yourself into thinking the league couldn’t crush this tactic if they wanted to. They don’t. Imagine the scenario if every player was forced to play their contract out to its end. You want other teams bidding against us for Purdy when his is up? Or Bosa? Nope. Hold out, get paid and stay on our team. If Publix raises its prices 20% you go to Albertsons on the next street over. Aiyuks and Bosas and Purdys aren’t as easy to find.
It’s a contract, plain and simple. He signed it without threats of bodily harm.
Some of you guys are way off base. This isn’t about the current 14 million dollar 5th year option. Its about after this coming season. He wants to be back with the team after this year and wants the extension. If anything, his cap hit is going to be less after the new deal then it is now. He might hold out in camp but he has no choice to play by week 1. His rookie deal will roll over to next year and he will be back to square one.
Let him sit out. Worked out well for Bell. LOL
You guys do understand that football is a GAME. If the NFL vanished tomorrow life would still go on and we would find other things to occupy our time. These clowns PLAY a game for a living, operative word GAME. No life or death decisions, no one dies if your team loses, it’s all a game. Personally I think it’s ridiculous that these guys get paid so much money to play a game. They’re not stupid for taking it, but the owners are for paying it.E Every one of these guys should either have a degree or be close to one. If they don’t want to PLAY go get a real job.
Owners aren’t stupid for paying it. Owners are paying out a percentage of revenue. Players and their labor are the product. Owners make vast amounts of money and have giant appreciating assets without risking life-altering injury. Great deal for the owners.
But, if I’m not mistaken don’t the owners have to buy the team, pay for maintenance on the facilities, taxes on said facilities, pay for staff, equipment, food, transportation, which tacks on billions on top of players salaries. The owners don’t exactly do nothing. They have invested billions of their money and if the product (team) sucks people stop coming, merchandise doesn’t move, star players don’t want to go there they could stand to lose money. Players have to make a choice. Take the money and chance getting hurt badly, ending up with Dementia from blows to the head, or take the college degree they earned and go to work in that field. Their choice. Most are going grab the money and for those guys I have no sympathy if they get hurt. They chose, knowing the risks
All of those expenses for the owner come in the face of huge automatic revenue. Even the bad teams rake in money. Even the cheapest owners get rewarded. And the acting owner and CEO of the 49ers has the job because his grandfather bought the team. Jed York has never really had a job that wasn’t handed to him with the 49ers. He’s not at risk of anything.
But the fact remains. Someone put up a lot of money, be it yesterday or 50 years ago,so there was an initial investment. And people expect a return on an investment. I could care less how much owners make. Good for them. But players have a choice. Sign a contract or walk away. Nobody is twisting their arm or threatening them.