49ers & Aiyuk Heading Toward SHOCKING Split

49ers & Aiyuk Heading Toward SHOCKING Split

The 49ers have voided the guaranteed money in his contract and Brandon has asked the players association to not fight it. The only thing that’s not done is essentially the idea of a release, but there’s no other way for this to go. If they’ve already voided his money for next year and Brandon’s not going to fight it, then you’re just talking about a technicality. This is a done deal and Brandon’s time with the 49ers comes to an end. 15 months after signing a 4-year $120 million extension, Brandon Iayuk and the San Francisco 49ers appear headed toward a divorce. Future guarantees will reportedly be voided. There are frustrations that have grown between the two sides and more to come on what’s coming next. But down the road, we’re going to have a discussion about whether or not Brandon Iayuk ever plays for the 49ers again, and we may have our answer earlier than we thought. So, I’m going to start scanning this. I’d love to hear your immediate reaction to this, but I also want to scan this to see if I can share some more information on what is going to happen next. Yeah. At least what’s expected to happen. The initial reaction is twofold. First, it’s uh stunned, not stunned. I’m stunned that it’s come to this now, but I’m not stunned because he hasn’t had his practice window opened. He has been reportedly running around and getting better, but not really champion at the bit to return. I don’t know if that was mutual or not. And the other piece of it is just how little we actually know about these contracts. And so, we all do the the sticker shock 4-year 120 million, 30 million average annual value. And even as we go through the guaranteed at signing, the actual guarantee when you get into a situation, there’s language that certain parts of it are voidable. And so whatever the 49, if it gets to this point where he doesn’t want to return and they’re kind of over him returning, well, then you get down to contract language and you find a way to figure out what that exit price is and you just pay it and you move on. Check this out. All right, here here is the crux of the issue. Um, according to sources, and this is coming from The Athletic, the report is from both Mike Silver and Diana Rousini. Okay, The Athletic. Th this is their report. Sources have told The Athletic that Aayuk has failed to attend meetings and declined to participate in other team activities in recent months. And the 49ers have grown increas in increasingly frustrated with that lack of communication and presence. So that has allowed the 49ers, at least in their eyes, to respond by voiding the guaranteed money in Iayuk’s contract for next season, not this season, but in 2026. They have voided the guaranteed money in his contract, asserting that his absences amount to a failure to fulfill contractual obligations. Man, I responded by, get this, this will really shock you. He told the NFL Players Union, “Don’t fight the move. Let them void the guarantees. Do not file a grievance on my behalf. That will clear the way for a release at the end of the year. An outright release is what is expected at the end of the year. Brandon Iayuk and the 49ers headed to a divorce. Literally just over a year after a lengthy hold out and then a massive contract that’ll essentially almost not ever kick in. Yeah. And I wonder how much of that they end up having to pay. And I know that this year they paid everything they paid because he got hurt. He was hurt. And so that number the cap hit was 9.9. Now he was given a $23 million signing bonus. I would assume that that’s already been paid and it got prrated over the life of the deal as the 49ers love to do. So I wonder what the actual cash he’s received is and how much of the remaining that they actually have to pay him. I know that there’s going to be cap hits for the NerS because that signing bonus gets spread out over years, but if they can get out of this without having to pay him another penny after this year, they they’ll be fine with it. Okay, the 2026 option bonus would have paid I $24.9 million. Okay, he stood to earn an extra 1.2 as just the actual base salary. So, by that point, we’re up over $26 million at that point. Then there would be a $100,000 workout bonus and roster bonuses of 750K per game. Per game. That’s about 10 million roughly. Okay. So you’re looking at something in the neighborhood of next year’s money 36 $37 million and the Niners will in theory get all of that back and then there was probably an out in the deal after that. Yes, there was. And so he got almost none of this. Well, I’m sure he got almost none. You know what I’m saying? Like in in in relatively relatively speaking. So he got the $23 million signing bonus and his base was 1.1. So that’s 24 million. Now I don’t think that he got his roster bonus this year because he wasn’t on the roster. He has been on the pub list. 308,000 this year per game, which would have roughly been another five million. So, he didn’t get that. He didn’t, you know, fight to get back and get the last four games worth of that. And so, from his side, I’m sure he’s thinking, “You all don’t want me. I don’t want to be here either.” So, yeah, NFL PA, don’t fight this. Let him just go ahead and void it and I’m going get healthy and go play somewhere else. I mean, I actually I I give I don’t know the particulars of how mad everybody all got at each other, but I will say that that is quite a move by Brandon Aayou cuz that’s a lot of money that he’s just saying don’t fight it and now I’m going to be a free agent coming off of major major leg reconstruction. Like what kind of open market deal does Brandon get next year? It’s going to be peanuts compared to the deal he just signed probably. But thinking about it from his side first, I did the research in the offseason on what the return to play is for this injury ACL, MCL with some meniscus in there. And he I think that he could have returned by now based on the range for NFL players who have had this. You’re usually back by week 10 or week 11 at the latest. So, I think that he could he could be back playing now, but things have gotten so uh contentious that it’s clear that he doesn’t want to be here and they don’t want him to be here if he’s not going to be sold out to be here. So, his option would be come back next year for one year for 34 million out the door. They’re going to cut him at the end of that year for sure or just cut bait now and go out there and try to try to make some money and then find a better spot for you. The 49ers have voided the guaranteed money in his contract and Brandon has asked the players association to not fight it. Those are past tense things. The so that is absolutely breaking news and the only thing that’s not done is essentially the idea of a release, but there’s no other way for this to go. If they’ve already voided his money for next year and Brandon’s not going to fight it, then you’re just talking about a technicality. This is a done deal and Brandon’s time with the 49ers comes to an end, which is I I’m with you. It’s like it’s like stunning in a very non-stunning sort of a way for me. The bottom line, Dibs, is that fight that they all got into last summer, they never got over it. They never neither side ever got over it. It in effect was the end of the relationship. And we’ve heard it from so many people that the Ners regretted this deal the moment they signed it and that hard feelings remained on on both sides. And as it turns out, what we didn’t know is that whole thing continued and it just kind of got hidden underneath this injury. And that’s how everybody was able to sort of keep it at bay. But the fact that this is landing now once everybody kind of heads out of the building knowing that the Brandon Iayuk thing had been asked like when he opened the practice window, when he opened the practice window, um that’s that’s interesting to me and it al to me it adds to the validity of all this. The 49ers are ready for this information to get out and um they allowed it to be released right now. Well, the article goes on to give really interesting detail about what’s been going on. His presence at the team’s training facility has become scarce. Sources say he’s usually there early in the morning and then leaves before other 49er players arrive. Interesting. Numerous members of the organization, including some players, have reached out to Aayuk in recent weeks in an unsuccessful attempt to bring him back into the fold. This is according to sources in the Mike Silver article in The Athletics. though clearly he’s trying to get better and get healthy, but he doesn’t want to do it around his teammates and certainly not around the coaches. And Silver goes on to give great detail that we already know about last year about the hold in and then he comes out and he’s wearing the wrong shorts and then he wasn’t totally fit and ready to play. He finally was starting to play well. Then he got hurt with the terrible injury. So this thing has been an absolute calamity. But you look at it also Mark from this piece and there’s two things that I want to say about it. One, they drafted Ricky Pearl and they drafted Ricky kind of expecting that this thing may not go great and also in one of Kyle Shanahan’s press availabilities. He he was asked about Ted McMillan who’s a rookie and the question was you know if he was there at 11 would you guys have taken him? And Kyle was like I was hoping he’d be there. we love him and you know I love the player all along and he’s having a great year and this and that and so he don’t be surprised if the Niners are looking for more receivers again in the draft and it makes sense now that uh Brandon Iayuk is going to be gone. Well, I also wonder real quick how this affects the situation surrounding Jawan Jennings because Jawan sort of staged a half injury half hold out during camp. Um he expressed his frustration. It has led most of us to believe that Jawan would not be on the team beyond this year because also the thought was I mean next year you’ve got two first round draft picks who are going to be your top two receivers Ricky Pearl and Brandon Iayuk but not anymore. So I wonder I wonder where this is headed. Don’t forget that the 49ers have been adding receivers young receivers to the fold every year. Jacob Cowing has been absent all year but is still on the team. Jordan Watkins has started to play a little bit of a role. They really do like him and I think that they probably see a bigger role from him next year, but you’re probably right, there will be more uh not only from the draft, there may be more in free agency as well. Um, but you know, one thing that I sort of said at the beginning of the year, which even though it’s been marred by injury, but I like I I really really felt firmly that before this year started um when people said like, you know, your number one ride wide receiver is still out. No, Ricky Pieraw is the number one wide receiver on this team. Like that’s going to be his role going forward. That’s who they see in that role. And um and Brandon, to your point, let’s just say it doesn’t want to be here. No. And I don’t know that like it sounds to me like the NerS want him here more than he wants to be here or at least did. But I I I think that they’re probably shoot and and they’re probably fine with it. If there’s not going to be a grievance filed, no. Then this is a win for the NerS. Well, and it’s a sunk cost. So if you had to give him the signing bonus, which I believe that they did because you did the signing bonus and you prrated over the life of the deal, fine. So the cap hit gets spread out over five years and this year you had to pay him what you had to and you didn’t have to pay the roster bonus cuz he was never on the roster. So that’s a sunk cost. If you can go into next year and have no additional cost that you have to pay and the only thing that’s going to hurt you is a pretty small maybe 1% of your cap cap hit over the next few years. If you’re the NerS and you’re totally fed up and the player wants to get out so bad that he’s willing to not grieve and say, “Yeah, we don’t even want a grievance.” Then if you’re the NerS, you’re pumped. Yes, you’d love to have peak IU here. You’d love to have a player who is a good wide receiver win healthy and win interested. But Ricky Pierol looks like he is on a good trajectory. And you mentioned Jawan Jennings. That becomes interesting in the offseason. If I’m Jawan, I’m thinking now, hey, maybe I can get a little bit of an extension. I can get a little bit more money if he wants to stay.

Brandon Aiyuk’s time with the San Francisco 49ers is officially over. The team has voided the guaranteed money in his contract for 2026 — and Aiyuk told the NFLPA not to fight it. After a year-long holdout, a massive $120 million extension, a devastating knee injury, and growing frustrations on both sides, the relationship has completely broken down.
In this breakdown, we discuss the shocking details from Mike Silver and Diana Russini’s report in The Athletic, including Aiyuk’s absences from team meetings, his early-morning-only facility visits, and the 49ers’ decision to cut ties. We also dive into what this means for the team’s future with Ricky Pearsall, Jauan Jennings, and their 2025 draft strategy.
The writing was on the wall — but nobody expected it to end this quickly. Brandon Aiyuk is heading toward an outright release, and the 49ers are moving on. Here’s everything you need to know about one of the most shocking contract voids in recent NFL history.

00:00 – Opening: Brandon Aiyuk and 49ers Headed to Divorce
00:39 – Breaking News: Contract Guarantees Voided
01:32 – Initial Reactions: Stunned But Not Surprised
02:20 – The Athletic Report: Aiyuk’s Absences Revealed
03:14 – Aiyuk Tells NFLPA: Don’t Fight It
04:00 – Breaking Down the Money: What He Got vs. What He Lost
06:00 – Why Aiyuk Is Walking Away From Millions
07:20 – The Holdout That Ruined Everything
08:30 – Aiyuk’s Ghost Status at the Facility
09:40 – Ricky Pearsall and the Future of 49ers Receivers
11:00 – What This Means for Jauan Jennings
12:00 – Final Thoughts: A Disaster on Both Sides

Download the Audacy app to never miss any of your favorite 957 The Game content:
https://go.audacy.com/y-listen-live-957thegame

Listen live: https://www.audacy.com/957thegame/listen
Visit our website: https://www.957thegame.com
Subscribe on Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/957thegame
Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/957thegame
Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/957thegame
Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/957thegame/
Join our Newsletter: https://www.audacy.com/957thegame/join-our-clubs/mvp-club