There has been a lot of conversation this week surrounding wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk. There were high expectations for the second-year San Francisco 49ers player. However, in the regular-season opener, Aiyuk surprisingly split playing time with new 49ers wideout Trent Sherfield.
Head coach Kyle Shanahan has explained that much of that is due to Aiyuk's earlier hamstring injury. That presented Sherfield with an opportunity, and the former Arizona Cardinal took advantage. The 49ers' offensive coordinator wanted to dispel any rumors that the young receiver might be in the team's doghouse.
"In-house with the 49ers, it's not like he's in the doghouse at all or anything," Mike McDaniel said after Thursday's practice. "But responding this week, he has been running his routes hard, crisp, and has gotten better with practice. It's very encouraging."
Aiyuk wasn't targeted in Week 1's 41-33 victory over the Detroit Lions. His role will likely increase this season, and that could start as early as this Sunday against the Philadelphia Eagles. One teammate who believes in Aiyuk is the one who split reps with him this past weekend.
"Brandon, he's been growing every single day," Sherfield said. "I trained with Brandon in the offseason, and he's a special player, and I love to have him as a teammate. Not only him, Deebo [Samuel], [Mohamed Sanu], all the guys that we kept. It's been a very, very competitive room, and it's brought the best out of all of us.
"This week, he's responded really, really well. Not only just this week. He's been responding well, in my eyes, ever since spring has started. It's good to have good healthy competition all in the room, and I'm excited to see how it all pans out this Sunday for him. And I know he's going to go make some plays."
Aiyuk is coming off a strong rookie campaign that saw the receiver register 60 catches for 748 yards and five touchdowns through 12 games and 11 starts. We'll see if he can gain speed this weekend after going over a speed bump in Week 1.