Brandon Aiyuk is a Quitter! Pick #25, 2020 NFL Draft

Originally posted by Monsterniner:
Deebo and Aiyuk are perfect examples that in today's NFL you don't pay top contracts to receivers that aren't generational talents.

I can understand paying top money to Jefferson, Chase, a prime Tyreek and maybe AJ Brown but if your WR isn't on that level you should try to trade him instead of giving him the huge contract that his huge ego will demand. After all, we see year in and year out that teams can find good receivers in the draft from the 1st to the 5th round.

If you are gonna give a top contract to a player on offense besides the QB and the LT that player should be the TE because a TE that can block and catch at an elite level is an unicorn and a huge mismatch for the defense.

They over paid him last year. Even if healthy. Because he was never going to be that good or that much of a game changer. He's not Jefferson or Chase by a long shot and certainly not that breakaway speed either. Not that deep threat for sure. Now with the injury it's a real mess. So much money tied up in this guy who might not be the same.

Originally posted by SanDiego49er:

Originally posted by Monsterniner:
Deebo and Aiyuk are perfect examples that in today's NFL you don't pay top contracts to receivers that aren't generational talents.

I can understand paying top money to Jefferson, Chase, a prime Tyreek and maybe AJ Brown but if your WR isn't on that level you should try to trade him instead of giving him the huge contract that his huge ego will demand. After all, we see year in and year out that teams can find good receivers in the draft from the 1st to the 5th round.

If you are gonna give a top contract to a player on offense besides the QB and the LT that player should be the TE because a TE that can block and catch at an elite level is an unicorn and a huge mismatch for the defense.

They over paid him last year. Even if healthy. Because he was never going to be that good or that much of a game changer. He's not Jefferson or Chase by a long shot and certainly not that breakaway speed either. Not that deep threat for sure. Now with the injury it's a real mess. So much money tied up in this guy who might not be the same.

Agreed. It's not even as uncommon as you make it seem though, you have a ton of guys who are game breakers at wr. Look at Julio jones, AJ green, TO, Calvin Johnson, Moss, . Most of those tippy top wrs are huge and insanely fast with good hands or just have game breaking speed.

Deebo and yuk were never going to be that. They just physically don't have the traits.

Of the current guys not mentioned I put ceedee borderline in that top category which should mean a hard look at whether to pay him or not. Deebo and yuk should have been no brainier tier two level contracts. Which means they should have gotten half of what the top guys got. Not near the top of the range.

Better to put that money into lineman and give purdy years to just fire at rookies with good protection and see if he can actually make guys better. He just needs one safety blanket tight and he'd be fine with good protection.

Cycle through young fast wrs like the do with the RBs and don't pay any of them unless they are an athletic freak with hands.

Originally posted by BoldRedandGold:

Originally posted by SanDiego49er:

Originally posted by Monsterniner:
Deebo and Aiyuk are perfect examples that in today's NFL you don't pay top contracts to receivers that aren't generational talents.

I can understand paying top money to Jefferson, Chase, a prime Tyreek and maybe AJ Brown but if your WR isn't on that level you should try to trade him instead of giving him the huge contract that his huge ego will demand. After all, we see year in and year out that teams can find good receivers in the draft from the 1st to the 5th round.

If you are gonna give a top contract to a player on offense besides the QB and the LT that player should be the TE because a TE that can block and catch at an elite level is an unicorn and a huge mismatch for the defense.

They over paid him last year. Even if healthy. Because he was never going to be that good or that much of a game changer. He's not Jefferson or Chase by a long shot and certainly not that breakaway speed either. Not that deep threat for sure. Now with the injury it's a real mess. So much money tied up in this guy who might not be the same.

Agreed. It's not even as uncommon as you make it seem though, you have a ton of guys who are game breakers at wr. Look at Julio jones, AJ green, TO, Calvin Johnson, Moss, . Most of those tippy top wrs are huge and insanely fast with good hands or just have game breaking speed.

Deebo and yuk were never going to be that. They just physically don't have the traits.

Of the current guys not mentioned I put ceedee borderline in that top category which should mean a hard look at whether to pay him or not. Deebo and yuk should have been no brainier tier two level contracts. Which means they should have gotten half of what the top guys got. Not near the top of the range.

Better to put that money into lineman and give purdy years to just fire at rookies with good protection and see if he can actually make guys better. He just needs one safety blanket tight and he'd be fine with good protection.

Cycle through young fast wrs like the do with the RBs and don't pay any of them unless they are an athletic freak with hands.

some revisionist history here

Originally posted by Monsterniner:
Deebo and Aiyuk are perfect examples that in today's NFL you don't pay top contracts to receivers that aren't generational talents.

I can understand paying top money to Jefferson, Chase, a prime Tyreek and maybe AJ Brown but if your WR isn't on that level you should try to trade him instead of giving him the huge contract that his huge ego will demand. After all, we see year in and year out that teams can find good receivers in the draft from the 1st to the 5th round.

If you are gonna give a top contract to a player on offense besides the QB and the LT that player should be the TE because a TE that can block and catch at an elite level is an unicorn and a huge mismatch for the defense.

Correct. People act like Top Wrs win superbowls but look who has won lately. Lines and a QB matter far more. Outside of Moss most people couldn't name a single WR of the Patriots dynasty. Jefferson is amazing but he'll never win a title until Minnesota gets a real QB. How are Chase and the Bengals doing again and they HAVE a franchise QB but no D to speak of. Giving top money to non top guys make fantasy football fun but doesn't win titles. BA and Samuel both were bad contracts.

The are getting ready to make the same mistake with Purdy. He's good, not great. He is our best option by a mile but will never be top 5 (top 10 maybe?). They need to have some outs or our window dies until we draft in the top 5 again and have a shot at a top tier QB. Every year he falls behind new people coming in like Daniels, Nix, etc. He simply doesn't have a ve those physical tools they do.

Originally posted by BoldRedandGold:

Originally posted by SanDiego49er:

Originally posted by Monsterniner:
Deebo and Aiyuk are perfect examples that in today's NFL you don't pay top contracts to receivers that aren't generational talents.

I can understand paying top money to Jefferson, Chase, a prime Tyreek and maybe AJ Brown but if your WR isn't on that level you should try to trade him instead of giving him the huge contract that his huge ego will demand. After all, we see year in and year out that teams can find good receivers in the draft from the 1st to the 5th round.

If you are gonna give a top contract to a player on offense besides the QB and the LT that player should be the TE because a TE that can block and catch at an elite level is an unicorn and a huge mismatch for the defense.

They over paid him last year. Even if healthy. Because he was never going to be that good or that much of a game changer. He's not Jefferson or Chase by a long shot and certainly not that breakaway speed either. Not that deep threat for sure. Now with the injury it's a real mess. So much money tied up in this guy who might not be the same.

Agreed. It's not even as uncommon as you make it seem though, you have a ton of guys who are game breakers at wr. Look at Julio jones, AJ green, TO, Calvin Johnson, Moss, . Most of those tippy top wrs are huge and insanely fast with good hands or just have game breaking speed.

Deebo and yuk were never going to be that. They just physically don't have the traits.

Of the current guys not mentioned I put ceedee borderline in that top category which should mean a hard look at whether to pay him or not. Deebo and yuk should have been no brainier tier two level contracts. Which means they should have gotten half of what the top guys got. Not near the top of the range.

Better to put that money into lineman and give purdy years to just fire at rookies with good protection and see if he can actually make guys better. He just needs one safety blanket tight and he'd be fine with good protection.

Cycle through young fast wrs like the do with the RBs and don't pay any of them unless they are an athletic freak with hands.

You guys are completely ignoring what happened before Aiyuk got paid.

The SB loss where Deebo got completely clamped down once KC went heavy man.

It was clear all that year Aiyuk was our top WR and revisionist history aside he was playing at the level of those guys mentioned. There is a reason he led the league in YPR until the last week of the season where playing with Sam Darnold while Pickens didn't get a single catch dropped BA to 2nd behind GP.

Even after BA came back and clearly not the same guy after missing camp and not being on the same page with Brock like the year before his impact was huge in the passing game. The idea that he's not a deep threat is absurd. You don't need to be a 4.3 40 guy to be a deep threat. He opened up a ton and after he got hurt things became a hell of a lot tougher with coverages and windows getting way tighter.

Aiyuk is a terrific WR who would've been putting up insane numbers on a team who fed him the ball 130+ times a season.

It's kind of crazy to read this imo lazy type of analysis on a 49ers message board when we saw Jerry dominate in every phase of the game due to his route running. Jerry wasn't the biggest, strongest and definitely not the fastest but he just got open.

Nobody is on Jerry's level but Aiyuk is a terrific route runner and a great WR1. We'll see if he's able to get back to form after the injury. Jerry was never the same after his but sports injury treatment is miles better these days. We better all hope he's back to form asap.

Originally posted by genus49:

Originally posted by BoldRedandGold:

Originally posted by SanDiego49er:

Originally posted by Monsterniner:
Deebo and Aiyuk are perfect examples that in today's NFL you don't pay top contracts to receivers that aren't generational talents.

I can understand paying top money to Jefferson, Chase, a prime Tyreek and maybe AJ Brown but if your WR isn't on that level you should try to trade him instead of giving him the huge contract that his huge ego will demand. After all, we see year in and year out that teams can find good receivers in the draft from the 1st to the 5th round.

If you are gonna give a top contract to a player on offense besides the QB and the LT that player should be the TE because a TE that can block and catch at an elite level is an unicorn and a huge mismatch for the defense.

They over paid him last year. Even if healthy. Because he was never going to be that good or that much of a game changer. He's not Jefferson or Chase by a long shot and certainly not that breakaway speed either. Not that deep threat for sure. Now with the injury it's a real mess. So much money tied up in this guy who might not be the same.

Agreed. It's not even as uncommon as you make it seem though, you have a ton of guys who are game breakers at wr. Look at Julio jones, AJ green, TO, Calvin Johnson, Moss, . Most of those tippy top wrs are huge and insanely fast with good hands or just have game breaking speed.

Deebo and yuk were never going to be that. They just physically don't have the traits.

Of the current guys not mentioned I put ceedee borderline in that top category which should mean a hard look at whether to pay him or not. Deebo and yuk should have been no brainier tier two level contracts. Which means they should have gotten half of what the top guys got. Not near the top of the range.

Better to put that money into lineman and give purdy years to just fire at rookies with good protection and see if he can actually make guys better. He just needs one safety blanket tight and he'd be fine with good protection.

Cycle through young fast wrs like the do with the RBs and don't pay any of them unless they are an athletic freak with hands.

You guys are completely ignoring what happened before Aiyuk got paid.

The SB loss where Deebo got completely clamped down once KC went heavy man.

It was clear all that year Aiyuk was our top WR and revisionist history aside he was playing at the level of those guys mentioned. There is a reason he led the league in YPR until the last week of the season where playing with Sam Darnold while Pickens didn't get a single catch dropped BA to 2nd behind GP.

Even after BA came back and clearly not the same guy after missing camp and not being on the same page with Brock like the year before his impact was huge in the passing game. The idea that he's not a deep threat is absurd. You don't need to be a 4.3 40 guy to be a deep threat. He opened up a ton and after he got hurt things became a hell of a lot tougher with coverages and windows getting way tighter.

Aiyuk is a terrific WR who would've been putting up insane numbers on a team who fed him the ball 130+ times a season.

It's kind of crazy to read this imo lazy type of analysis on a 49ers message board when we saw Jerry dominate in every phase of the game due to his route running. Jerry wasn't the biggest, strongest and definitely not the fastest but he just got open.

Nobody is on Jerry's level but Aiyuk is a terrific route runner and a great WR1. We'll see if he's able to get back to form after the injury. Jerry was never the same after his but sports injury treatment is miles better these days. We better all hope he's back to form asap.

He was solid the year before but he was never in the tier of the guys listed, absolutely no one puts him on par with Chase, Jefferson, Adams, etc. Jennings had nearly 1000 yards last year and no one outs him in that category either. BA is a tier 2 guy getting paid like a tier 1, that's not good for business. If his production dropped that significantly because he missed a training camp he's clearly not the talent you think he is.

Originally posted by RedGoldSquatch:
Correct. People act like Top Wrs win superbowls but look who has won lately. Lines and a QB matter far more. Outside of Moss most people couldn't name a single WR of the Patriots dynasty. Jefferson is amazing but he'll never win a title until Minnesota gets a real QB. How are Chase and the Bengals doing again and they HAVE a franchise QB but no D to speak of. Giving top money to non top guys make fantasy football fun but doesn't win titles. BA and Samuel both were bad contracts.

The are getting ready to make the same mistake with Purdy. He's good, not great. He is our best option by a mile but will never be top 5 (top 10 maybe?). They need to have some outs or our window dies until we draft in the top 5 again and have a shot at a top tier QB. Every year he falls behind new people coming in like Daniels, Nix, etc. He simply doesn't have a ve those physical tools they do.

Physical tools aren't the only thing that win football games. Jayden Daniels looks like a stud but let's pump the breaks on pushing Nix ahead of him.

I remember a time when Kap was the next great QB in the game. How'd that go? CJ Stroud was well on his way to being an elite QB after his terrific rookie season. How'd he do this year?

I find it funny that a lot of the same people who hold the "SB or bust" type of stance have such appreciation for physical tooled QBs who never showed the calmness in the postseason that Purdy has.

Also I don't think I need to explain how silly a QB to WR comparison is in the contract conversation right?

I don't care where Brock or BA are ranked on some guys ranking. Those are simply opinions and you can find some terrible ones out there. All
that I care about is what they do for the 49ers and both Brock and BA have been giving us great football together a lot more than not.

You invest in those people if you want to improve your chances of winning that SB.

Originally posted by RedGoldSquatch:
He was solid the year before but he was never in the tier of the guys listed, absolutely no one puts him on par with Chase, Jefferson, Adams, etc. Jennings had nearly 1000 yards last year and no one outs him in that category either. BA is a tier 2 guy getting paid like a tier 1, that's not good for business. If his production dropped that significantly because he missed a training camp he's clearly not the talent you think he is.

Do I need to pull up the targets for those guys?

And great you pulled up arguably the 3 greatest WRs in the league in the last 5 years. That's your bar?

Be top 3 or you're not getting paid? That must suck for 29 other teams.

And like I said go back and look at our production in the passing game before he got hurt and after. If you don't see a correlation there then you're blind.

Originally posted by genus49:

Originally posted by RedGoldSquatch:
He was solid the year before but he was never in the tier of the guys listed, absolutely no one puts him on par with Chase, Jefferson, Adams, etc. Jennings had nearly 1000 yards last year and no one outs him in that category either. BA is a tier 2 guy getting paid like a tier 1, that's not good for business. If his production dropped that significantly because he missed a training camp he's clearly not the talent you think he is.

Do I need to pull up the targets for those guys?

And great you pulled up arguably the 3 greatest WRs in the league in the last 5 years. That's your bar?

Be top 3 or you're not getting paid? That must suck for 29 other teams.

And like I said go back and look at our production in the passing game before he got hurt and after. If you don't see a correlation there then you're blind.

You get paid like a top 5 receiver you better produce like one. Did he produce like one before his injury? Not 2023 when he was playing for the contract, I'm talking 2024 after he made himself a distraction and then came in out of shape and averaged 3.5 catches, 50 yards a game with 0 tds.

If he doesn't come back and produce at that level from the get go it's a failure. That's how it is when you got top money.

Originally posted by RedGoldSquatch:

Originally posted by genus49:

Originally posted by RedGoldSquatch:
He was solid the year before but he was never in the tier of the guys listed, absolutely no one puts him on par with Chase, Jefferson, Adams, etc. Jennings had nearly 1000 yards last year and no one outs him in that category either. BA is a tier 2 guy getting paid like a tier 1, that's not good for business. If his production dropped that significantly because he missed a training camp he's clearly not the talent you think he is.

Do I need to pull up the targets for those guys?

And great you pulled up arguably the 3 greatest WRs in the league in the last 5 years. That's your bar?

Be top 3 or you're not getting paid? That must suck for 29 other teams.

And like I said go back and look at our production in the passing game before he got hurt and after. If you don't see a correlation there then you're blind.

You get paid like a top 5 receiver you better produce like one. Did he produce like one before his injury? Not 2023 when he was playing for the contract, I'm talking 2024 after he made himself a distraction and then came in out of shape and averaged 3.5 catches, 50 yards a game with 0 tds.

If he doesn't come back and produce at that level from the get go it's a failure. That's how it is when you got top money.

That's not how it works lol

what happened in 24 doesn't erase how good he was in the seasons before. Also the slow start doesn't mean he would have finished the season that way if he didn't get injured.

Originally posted by RedGoldSquatch:

Originally posted by genus49:

Originally posted by RedGoldSquatch:
He was solid the year before but he was never in the tier of the guys listed, absolutely no one puts him on par with Chase, Jefferson, Adams, etc. Jennings had nearly 1000 yards last year and no one outs him in that category either. BA is a tier 2 guy getting paid like a tier 1, that's not good for business. If his production dropped that significantly because he missed a training camp he's clearly not the talent you think he is.

Do I need to pull up the targets for those guys?

And great you pulled up arguably the 3 greatest WRs in the league in the last 5 years. That's your bar?

Be top 3 or you're not getting paid? That must suck for 29 other teams.

And like I said go back and look at our production in the passing game before he got hurt and after. If you don't see a correlation there then you're blind.

You get paid like a top 5 receiver you better produce like one. Did he produce like one before his injury? Not 2023 when he was playing for the contract, I'm talking 2024 after he made himself a distraction and then came in out of shape and averaged 3.5 catches, 50 yards a game with 0 tds.

If he doesn't come back and produce at that level from the get go it's a failure. That's how it is when you got top money.

Once again you refuse to look at the impact him being on the field had on the whole passing offense.

Yes his own production wasn't up to his standard. We all know that but He was still averaging 15 YPR. That's Justin Jefferson's career average and higher than Chase's career average by 1.3 YPR.

Yes the drops were bad. Yes the lack of TDs was glaring but pretending he was just terrible and ignoring what his presence alone brings the offense is lazy.

Aiyuk has never topped 114 targets in a season.

Justin Jefferson's lowest targets in a season where he played most of the games was 125 as a rookie. He's had over 150 targets every year since.
Chase never had lower than 128
Adams has averaged 163 targets for the last 5 years

If Aiyuk gets fed he'd have the numbers that you'd respect.

Originally posted by genus49:

Originally posted by RedGoldSquatch:

Originally posted by genus49:

Originally posted by RedGoldSquatch:
He was solid the year before but he was never in the tier of the guys listed, absolutely no one puts him on par with Chase, Jefferson, Adams, etc. Jennings had nearly 1000 yards last year and no one outs him in that category either. BA is a tier 2 guy getting paid like a tier 1, that's not good for business. If his production dropped that significantly because he missed a training camp he's clearly not the talent you think he is.

Do I need to pull up the targets for those guys?

And great you pulled up arguably the 3 greatest WRs in the league in the last 5 years. That's your bar?

Be top 3 or you're not getting paid? That must suck for 29 other teams.

And like I said go back and look at our production in the passing game before he got hurt and after. If you don't see a correlation there then you're blind.

You get paid like a top 5 receiver you better produce like one. Did he produce like one before his injury? Not 2023 when he was playing for the contract, I'm talking 2024 after he made himself a distraction and then came in out of shape and averaged 3.5 catches, 50 yards a game with 0 tds.

If he doesn't come back and produce at that level from the get go it's a failure. That's how it is when you got top money.

Once again you refuse to look at the impact him being on the field had on the whole passing offense.

Yes his own production wasn't up to his standard. We all know that but He was still averaging 15 YPR. That's Justin Jefferson's career average and higher than Chase's career average by 1.3 YPR.

Yes the drops were bad. Yes the lack of TDs was glaring but pretending he was just terrible and ignoring what his presence alone brings the offense is lazy.

Aiyuk has never topped 114 targets in a season.

Justin Jefferson's lowest targets in a season where he played most of the games was 125 as a rookie. He's had over 150 targets every year since.
Chase never had lower than 128
Adams has averaged 163 targets for the last 5 years

If Aiyuk gets fed he'd have the numbers that you'd respect.

And if he was worthy of those targets and a focus on the offense he would get them. Getting paid all that money typically means other positions suffer and you have to make up for that. We didn't have that problem because we had a qb playing for nothing. That's not the case anymore so the talent around him is going to drop. His production will need to increase to offset that. I highly suspect it won't. If his best season ends up being the one BEFORE he got the bag it's hard to argue that's not an abstract failure.

In 2 years this discussion will have a definitive answer. Either his production is in line with his pay or it's not. If I was a better man I'd put those odds at about 85% he had the best season he will ever have in 2023.

Originally posted by RedGoldSquatch:

Originally posted by genus49:

Originally posted by RedGoldSquatch:

Originally posted by genus49:

Originally posted by RedGoldSquatch:
He was solid the year before but he was never in the tier of the guys listed, absolutely no one puts him on par with Chase, Jefferson, Adams, etc. Jennings had nearly 1000 yards last year and no one outs him in that category either. BA is a tier 2 guy getting paid like a tier 1, that's not good for business. If his production dropped that significantly because he missed a training camp he's clearly not the talent you think he is.

Do I need to pull up the targets for those guys?

And great you pulled up arguably the 3 greatest WRs in the league in the last 5 years. That's your bar?

Be top 3 or you're not getting paid? That must suck for 29 other teams.

And like I said go back and look at our production in the passing game before he got hurt and after. If you don't see a correlation there then you're blind.

You get paid like a top 5 receiver you better produce like one. Did he produce like one before his injury? Not 2023 when he was playing for the contract, I'm talking 2024 after he made himself a distraction and then came in out of shape and averaged 3.5 catches, 50 yards a game with 0 tds.

If he doesn't come back and produce at that level from the get go it's a failure. That's how it is when you got top money.

Once again you refuse to look at the impact him being on the field had on the whole passing offense.

Yes his own production wasn't up to his standard. We all know that but He was still averaging 15 YPR. That's Justin Jefferson's career average and higher than Chase's career average by 1.3 YPR.

Yes the drops were bad. Yes the lack of TDs was glaring but pretending he was just terrible and ignoring what his presence alone brings the offense is lazy.

Aiyuk has never topped 114 targets in a season.

Justin Jefferson's lowest targets in a season where he played most of the games was 125 as a rookie. He's had over 150 targets every year since.
Chase never had lower than 128
Adams has averaged 163 targets for the last 5 years

If Aiyuk gets fed he'd have the numbers that you'd respect.

And if he was worthy of those targets and a focus on the offense he would get them. Getting paid all that money typically means other positions suffer and you have to make up for that. We didn't have that problem because we had a qb playing for nothing. That's not the case anymore so the talent around him is going to drop. His production will need to increase to offset that. I highly suspect it won't. If his best season ends up being the one BEFORE he got the bag it's hard to argue that's not an abstract failure.

In 2 years this discussion will have a definitive answer. Either his production is in line with his pay or it's not. If I was a better man I'd put those odds at about 85% he had the best season he will ever have in 2023.

That's why I bring up YPR. That is a number that shows production per play. If Kyle starts feeding Aiyuk there is nothing indicating Aiyuk cannot come up big.

And obviously a significant injury puts unknown out there and smart money would be on him not reaching those numbers. It doesn't mean he can't come back to form and produce bigger numbers when actually fed like other receivers.

That's more of a question for Kyle and maybe that was going to be the plan given how the SB went that they were going to feature Aiyuk a lot more. The rust didn't help things.

Unless the 49ers can get Aiyuk for Myle Garrett, I'd decline every other trade. I just want to see a healthy Aiyuk, Jennings and Pearsall beating man coverage.

Originally posted by genus49:

Originally posted by RedGoldSquatch:

Originally posted by genus49:

Originally posted by RedGoldSquatch:

Originally posted by genus49:

Originally posted by RedGoldSquatch:
He was solid the year before but he was never in the tier of the guys listed, absolutely no one puts him on par with Chase, Jefferson, Adams, etc. Jennings had nearly 1000 yards last year and no one outs him in that category either. BA is a tier 2 guy getting paid like a tier 1, that's not good for business. If his production dropped that significantly because he missed a training camp he's clearly not the talent you think he is.

Do I need to pull up the targets for those guys?

And great you pulled up arguably the 3 greatest WRs in the league in the last 5 years. That's your bar?

Be top 3 or you're not getting paid? That must suck for 29 other teams.

And like I said go back and look at our production in the passing game before he got hurt and after. If you don't see a correlation there then you're blind.

You get paid like a top 5 receiver you better produce like one. Did he produce like one before his injury? Not 2023 when he was playing for the contract, I'm talking 2024 after he made himself a distraction and then came in out of shape and averaged 3.5 catches, 50 yards a game with 0 tds.

If he doesn't come back and produce at that level from the get go it's a failure. That's how it is when you got top money.

Once again you refuse to look at the impact him being on the field had on the whole passing offense.

Yes his own production wasn't up to his standard. We all know that but He was still averaging 15 YPR. That's Justin Jefferson's career average and higher than Chase's career average by 1.3 YPR.

Yes the drops were bad. Yes the lack of TDs was glaring but pretending he was just terrible and ignoring what his presence alone brings the offense is lazy.

Aiyuk has never topped 114 targets in a season.

Justin Jefferson's lowest targets in a season where he played most of the games was 125 as a rookie. He's had over 150 targets every year since.
Chase never had lower than 128
Adams has averaged 163 targets for the last 5 years

If Aiyuk gets fed he'd have the numbers that you'd respect.

And if he was worthy of those targets and a focus on the offense he would get them. Getting paid all that money typically means other positions suffer and you have to make up for that. We didn't have that problem because we had a qb playing for nothing. That's not the case anymore so the talent around him is going to drop. His production will need to increase to offset that. I highly suspect it won't. If his best season ends up being the one BEFORE he got the bag it's hard to argue that's not an abstract failure.

In 2 years this discussion will have a definitive answer. Either his production is in line with his pay or it's not. If I was a better man I'd put those odds at about 85% he had the best season he will ever have in 2023.

That's why I bring up YPR. That is a number that shows production per play. If Kyle starts feeding Aiyuk there is nothing indicating Aiyuk cannot come up big.

And obviously a significant injury puts unknown out there and smart money would be on him not reaching those numbers. It doesn't mean he can't come back to form and produce bigger numbers when actually fed like other receivers.

That's more of a question for Kyle and maybe that was going to be the plan given how the SB went that they were going to feature Aiyuk a lot more. The rust didn't help things.

Sidestep to say well done. Rational and reasoned, no name calling. As these forums should be, thank you for that.

Back to discussion, I hope he does come back and produces to that level but I sincerely doubt he can and unfortunately see his peak being in the past which is never a good thing for a dude you just handed big money. Injury cannot be accounted for so I won't hate on him for that.

That being said what I can hate on is the public holdout. I have no issue saying I would have traded him the moment he pulled that card and this discussion wouldn't be necessary at all. Same with Samuel, you make yourself a target and I will treat you like one. One of them won't be in the roster next year (Samuel) and I expect the other will always be seen as a miss on his contract (BA).