Kyle Shanahan Explains Why the 49ers Voided Brandon Aiyuk’s Guarantees

Kyle Shanahan Explains Why the 49ers Voided Brandon Aiyuk’s Guarantees

How can you uh describe what you status with the team right now? Um yeah, it’s week to week hoping he can clear all the markers so he can come back and start his practice window. Has he missed either meetings or workout sessions or rehab things? Anything that would have upset the team in any way or would have led to him? Have you removed his bonus for next season? Uh yes, that uh went that happened back in July though, so that was uh other things. But as far as like missing meetings, things like that, any injured player or people are on IR doing rehab, like their schedule’s totally different than the rest of the team. So sometimes they’re involved in meetings, sometimes they’re not at all. Um not going to go through each thing with him, but um anytime a guy’s on IR and stuff, they’re not in the daily routine of meetings. Uh yeah, he’s missed them. There’s been other people on our team that have missed meetings before, but that doesn’t have anything to do with his contract. So, there’s still potential that he could return and play games. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Is the team and him on the same page in terms of where he’s at from an injury perspective? Like, does he think he’s ahead of where you guys do or vice versa? Uh, I can’t tell you that. I not getting much dialogue just personally between him and I. Um, and I’ve been told that it’s week to week. So each week I wait to see if um he’s ready to come back for practice and um haven’t got that answer yet. So is he medically cleared by you guys or No, he’s not. Yeah, there’s still markers he’s got to pass. Do you mind do you think that he’s motivated? Do you do you does the organization feel that he’s motivated to come back and play this season? Uh I don’t think that really matters. Uh I think everyone might have a different opinion of that. I, you know, I’d known with the contract stuff that happened back in July, I knew it was going to be a while for him to come back. Um, I was hoping to get him back around this time and we kind of been going about that like coaching the team. I don’t really deal much with injured players. Um, I was told a few weeks ago he was getting closer and um, we haven’t made progress in that way so far. So, from my standpoint, I’m just waiting for him to get back to practice. Why his guarantee was voided? Uh, no, I can’t. I’m sorry. Maybe the same question I could hear, but you want to get into specific. So, What happened in July to cause that voiding? I’m not going to get into specifics of that. There was a number of things from July that to me is more of a business side dealing with lawyers and stuff and contracts and um stuff that is really um not my area of expertise. This is a guy obviously the team felt and you felt good enough to give a very large contract not very long ago. Is there disappointment that it’s gotten to this with Brandon and the 49ers? Um yeah, of course. I’ve been coaching 20 over 20 years and I’ve never been in a situation where um a contract’s been voided. So, it was extremely unusual to me. And personally, I mean, I imagine you were very in support of him getting a new contract. Uh we know how weird that negotiation was, but do you feel let down by the situation? Um I’m not really there yet. Like, I know everyone got a lot of information yesterday. Um, that was information that I found out in July and kind of dealt with it then. And to me, the contract stuff and guarantees and things like that is really it’s irrelevant to my relationship with the player and my relationship with our team, what we’re trying to do this year. Uh, I know I went through that stuff and talked to him a lot about it back in July. Um, but since July, it’s been all about this season and hoping he would get healthy and he’s been working to get healthy and I’ve been waiting for him to come back when he’s healthy. Is it realistic to expect a player to come back and play once his guarantees have been voided? Um, I don’t know. I’ve never been in that situation, so really don’t think about that. Just think about people coming back when they’re healthy. People look at that mechanism and say it’s very unlikely he would be on the team next year. How likely do you view that as as a possible scenario? Um, what happened in July to me, in my opinion, doesn’t have anything to do with the future. That had to do with circumstances that to me were out of a a coach’s hand. you know, when I best way I can explain it when it comes to business matters and lawyers and contracts and things like that, uh, when it comes to the future of this, I mean, I would love for BA to be here. I would love for him to get healthy and get back to really helping us out and being a part of this team. Um, we haven’t had that in a little bit, and I still I still hold out hope that he can get there. Um, but he obviously hasn’t gotten there yet. Looking at his contract, can you say in any way if it it was tied to any sort of conduct or behavior from him? Um, no. I think you can figure that out on yourself. I mean, it takes a lot of things to get a contract voided. Um, I didn’t even know, honestly, I’ve never dealt with that in my career. I’ve been in any building that’s had that. So, it was unusual, but that’s stuff that I can’t get into right now. You had Brandon and you had Debo both in their 20s, both highly protective players. the idea that obviously Debo has been traded and we don’t know what’s going to happen with Brandon after this season. Is there some s like does it feel like a loss? Does it feel like something really weird happened here to get to this point or is it a natural occurrence? Like how do you just these are two were two really important players for this team that may not one of them already is gone. Do you have any sense on what’s happened here? Um, I mean, I think in Debo’s case, I think it’s I think it’s it’s very hard for teams in the NFL to keep two very high priced receivers. Um, and I think both of those guys were like that when they hit their market. Um, so that’s why you don’t see that on many teams. So, I think that’s pretty normal. Um, what you guys found out yesterday or that was public. Uh, I know that’s unusual. So, I get all those questions about it. Um, but that is something that happened three or four months ago, whenever that was, and something that’s been completely out of sight, out of mind in terms of a contract. Um, the only thing I’ve been thinking about is hoping he can get healthy and come back and play for us. Early in training camp, you spoke to Brandon, being engaged, you know, in team meetings, being around the team. What What changed? You’d have to ask him that. Is he still doing rehab in the mornings, Kyle, and then getting out of here? going to meetings at all? Uh, not meetings, but I didn’t check today. I know he’s been he was at rehab yesterday, though. Is there any concern about him as a as a person? Um, story yesterday mentioned that some of the other players have reached out to him to try to kind of bring him back into the locker room. Yeah, I don’t think it’s the right platform to talk about um concerns for a person, but concerned about all people on our team and we do care about a lot about U BA um but rather not talk about that. when you were saying he was kind of engaged with the team. Was that born of a conversation that the team had to have with him and is that what sparked or like what what is the difference? You’d have to ask him that. Um but no, he was a lot more involved in stuff back in training camp and things like that. It’s a long year when you guys rehab, we start to go through our game plan meetings, which is why a lot of guys on IR aren’t involved in many meetings until they get closer to play. Um, and we hope that he’s getting closer to play, but uh, he hasn’t got there yet. What do you have going on Monday night that you’ve had for the last couple months in terms of the receiving court, but essentially at full staff now with Brandon? Uh, I feel I feel real good. I think our guys have stepped it up all year. U, we’ve been in a lot of tough situations, especially earlier on, you know, when we lost Ricky, Jawan not being healthy. um D- Rob on a suspension. So, I think guys, KB, Sky, all these guys have stepped it up big time. Even the tight ends, you know, with KD going out, Luke stepped it up. And I think JJ’s at his healthiest point right now that he’s been all year, which is awesome. And getting Ricky back last week is a huge step for us. Hasn’t been on the injury report, but it seems like he’s playing a little bit better. Is it because his health has gotten better? Yeah, no doubt. I mean, he had a serious injury back in training camp. Um I think he missed like three weeks and got cleared for week one. Um, but like you guys you guys been doing all this long enough too, usually when a guy misses camp because of injury, uh, it takes him a while and, uh, he’s battled through that. I know he played through a lot of stuff early on, getting back. Um, but I really feel now he’s, um, playing at, uh, his highest level, the best he’s been all year, and I’ve seen him improve here over the last four weeks. A random question I’ll just ask. You’ve always deferred if you when you win the coin toss taking go on defense first at this point with all the injuries on defense and all your offensive guys mainly coming back. Would you think about taking the ball first if winning the coin toss or is it just strictly you’re going to defer and take the ball to start the second half? Well, I usually side with the analytics of what gives you the best percentage to percentage to have the most possessions. Um if we got really um worried about the other team scoring first and we thought being down three to zero 7 to zero was the biggest difference then I I would defer. I mean I mean then I would choose to have the ball. I don’t think really in any absolutes but um it is hard to convince me that the best chance to win is the best percentage of having the ball the most. McCaffrey question and Ed McCaffrey question. I know that you admired him when you were a teenager. Did you were you thinking at that point that this could be somebody that I could be like I could be in Ed McCaffrey, you know, in 10 years, that sort of thing? I did because I didn’t know enough about football. Um, you know, so, you know, I mean, I idolized Ed and Rod. Um, but that ship sailed I think when I was an insecure, very skinny junior and I was talking to Ed and thinking he’d make me feel better and I was like, “Man, but how much did you weigh in high school? You were pretty skinny, too. When did you get all big?” And he’s like, “I was a tight end in high school. I had to lose weight when I went to college.” And that’s when I realized, even though I should have on my own, that we’re not at all the same guy. You mentioned that the team’s obviously better with Brandon. How frustrating is it when the business of the league overrides the sport? Um, I don’t know. I mean, it’s any time you have a good player that uh that has been a part of this team that guys have really loved and coaches included. Um, and it’s it’s frustrating that that that’s not happening right now. And um, but when you talk about like now and stuff, that’s what I kind of kind of went through some of this frustration back in July. Um but um I I thought after we went through that I thought things went pretty well though that we would have a chance for him to come back and play for us and um still holding out hope on that. It’ll be July before training camp. Um, yeah, right when training camp started. So, whatever that date is, it’s it’s that week of July. That conversation you had with him, the focus was to try to eliminate as much of distraction of his contract situation from team from when when you had that conversation with Brandon in July about his contract situation, was your focus on trying to eliminate that as a distraction? Um, yeah, I think it’s, you know, it was a while ago, so um, but but no, it was more just when big things happen, you want to talk to guys about it, see where they’re at, how to catch up on it, like understand what’s going on and get on the same page. And, um, I think that’s that’s really what it was about. All right. Thanks God.

Grant Cohn films Kyle Shanahan explaining why the San Francisco 49ers voided Brandon Aiyuk’s guarantees.