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

Originally posted by eastie:
LOL at "There is no tangible benefit to Aiyuk issuing a statement". In fact there are 27 million reasons, but he's declined that opportunity.

He had a brief window to do that and it's long past. We're talking about issuing a public statement or having a press conference now. Again there's no benefit. At best it would be an attempt to soften his public perception among fans (mainly 49ers fans). Absolutely pointless.

Originally posted by SmokeyJoe:

Originally posted by 49ers808:
If that's the case the question still remains as to why? Why did they want to get out of the deal so bad a year after doing it? Can't just be because they weren't unanimous in the decision to sign him. In any case, I don't care and just can't wait to get rid of this mistake

Doesn't have to be anything other than cash savings (not cap savings), which was a priority for the team this past offseason. Could be something more… it's not clear.

Then someone needs to be fired cause that's piss poor management of funds. They only realized it was a priority after signing him??? Still lost/losing money.

What do you think would've happened if he didn't get hurt?

Originally posted by 49ers808:
Then someone needs to be fired cause that's piss poor management of funds. They only realized it was a priority after signing him??? Still lost/losing money.

What do you think would've happened if he didn't get hurt?

The thing is they didn't want to sign him. They had worked out a trade. Kyle jammed the deal through and then he got hurt, making the deal an absolute catastrophe. Remember the story about Kyle running upstairs after meeting with Aiyuk, when Aiyuk decided he was willing to sign their most recent contract offer?

This was a serious enough situation where reports were surfacing that Kyle would be less involved in personnel decisions (ie contractual disputes) going forward.

All offseason long there were reports that the team was looking to move Aiyuk. The problem was he was seriously injured and had a massive deal.

Originally posted by SmokeyJoe:
This only addresses whether the 49ers had the right to void Aiyuk's guarantees… nothing else of substance.

Look at DK Metcalf's situation this past season in Pittsburgh. He was handed a suspension from the league for his altercation with a fan in Detroit. The suspension gave the Steelers the right to void $45 million in future guarantees. They opted not to do so.

Without seeing the language in Aiyuk's contract and the action(s) Aiyuk took that violated its terms, we don't have a clear view of the situation. As KJ said 'the devil is in the details'.

Having followed this situation closely going back to the negotiations around his extension, it seems plausible to me that the team's action here was less about egregious behavior on his part and more about their desire to get out of the contract. A contract that was the source of internal dispute. It's certainly more fitting with what is publicly known.

Uh, it is very much "of substance" lol. A guy just got paid, doesn't want to rehab getting back into the field. You then use an example that is completely different (DK Metcalf, a player that was active all season, playing, etc).

But if you want to use the semantics of it, well yeah I suspect after the 49ers saw Aiyuk had little interest in getting back on the field, they wanted out of the contract and literally used the agreed upon contract language to do so. The reason there is language like that in these contracts is exactly for this situation.

Again, name another time you saw anything like this. A player just not rehabbing, seemingly zero interest getting back on the field.

I'm not sure about "devil in the details". What would that matter??? What feasible details would support Aiyuks position? He felt slighted by.... Something, so he decided not to rehab? Terrible.

He claims he DID rehab and the 49ers were being too stringent on their physical? Less than a ZERO percent chance he/his agent/nflpa don't fight that.

So I'm curious what details you could conconct that would "both-sides" this.

Originally posted by frenchmov:
Uh, it is very much "of substance" lol. A guy just got paid, doesn't want to rehab getting back into the field. You then use an example that is completely different (DK Metcalf, a player that was active all season, playing, etc).

But if you want to use the semantics of it, well yeah I suspect after the 49ers saw Aiyuk had little interest in getting back on the field, they wanted out of the contract and literally used the agreed upon contract language to do so. The reason there is language like that in these contracts is exactly for this situation.

Again, name another time you saw anything like this. A player just not rehabbing, seemingly zero interest getting back on the field.

I'm not sure about "devil in the details". What would that matter??? What feasible details would support Aiyuks position? He felt slighted by.... Something, so he decided not to rehab? Terrible.

He claims he DID rehab and the 49ers were being too stringent on their physical? Less than a ZERO percent chance he/his agent/nflpa don't fight that.

So I'm curious what details you could conconct that would "both-sides" this.

You are speculating based on inaccurate facts. The speculation doesn't fit what is known publicly. Aiyuk was with the team in TC, participating in limited practices, and rehabbing after his guarantees were voided. His guarantees were voided in July. He was with the team in August.

Without knowing what he did that allowed the 49ers to void his guarantees, we don't have an accurate picture. Did he miss a rehab assignment or multiple rehab assignments. Did he miss a team meeting, or multiple team meetings? It clearly wasn't the case that he had abandoned the team at that time.

Originally posted by SmokeyJoe:
I don't disagree Aiyuk shares blame (as I mentioned in an earlier post) at a minimum for allowing the team the opportunity to void those guarantees. Without knowing what actually happened it is too wild a leap for me to assume Aiyuk's 'mind wasn't right'.

I've seen a lot of inaccurate information being thrown around this thread, not including the many flat out unhinged posts. An example of that would be that he bailed on the team. Ultimately that's true but timelines matter, and he was an active participant with this team in the time period after his guarantees were actually voided (and the team was shielding that action from the public, which they did for months). I wonder why that was?

Great question. I hope at some point we get his side of the story and even then we may never really know the REAL story.

It's VERY odd. The fact that he hasn't changed agents(at least yet) also adds to the insanity of it all since his agent is one of John Lynch's best friends.

Reading between the lines and based on the reports we have now it seems like the guarantees were voided around late training camp. And yes it did seem like he was still around the team after it happened. So did he not know the money was taken away? Did he not have a huge issue with it when it happened but did later? Was someone in his ear basically telling him to burn it all down and start over somewhere else?

Odds are this drama will be over soon here. We'll see what's next in his career. Washington with his BFF seems highly likely. What I don't get is how mentally fragile Brandon must be to handle it this way given what was happening with the team?

it's the nfl and talent will always get a chance and BA has talent but he hasn't played football after a serious injury. His runway to succeed or fail is very short now.

Originally posted by genus49:
Great question. I hope at some point we get his side of the story and even then we may never really know the REAL story.

It's VERY odd. The fact that he hasn't changed agents(at least yet) also adds to the insanity of it all since his agent is one of John Lynch's best friends.

Reading between the lines and based on the reports we have now it seems like the guarantees were voided around late training camp. And yes it did seem like he was still around the team after it happened. So did he not know the money was taken away? Did he not have a huge issue with it when it happened but did later? Was someone in his ear basically telling him to burn it all down and start over somewhere else?

Odds are this drama will be over soon here. We'll see what's next in his career. Washington with his BFF seems highly likely. What I don't get is how mentally fragile Brandon must be to handle it this way given what was happening with the team?

it's the nfl and talent will always get a chance and BA has talent but he hasn't played football after a serious injury. His runway to succeed or fail is very short now.

Maybe what happened was a one off event and Aiyuk thought the team wouldn't have actually gone ahead and voided his guarantees if he showed he was committed to the team. That would have required the team wanting him to remain a 49er and honoring his contract. I don't think the top of the FO wanted that, clearly. Had he not been injured I'm sure they would have traded him regardless of what actually happened.

Either way, when it became a certainty that his guarantees were voided and his future with the team was done, it's not surprising that he didn't play again. I don't think that's any indication that he's bats**t crazy or that he's done with football. It's an indication that was done with the 49ers (who were clearly done with him).

From a pure football-on-the-field standpoint, it's good we are getting out of this contract. I also think it revealed structural issues and concerning management from the front office

Originally posted by SmokeyJoe:
You are speculating based on inaccurate facts. The speculation doesn't fit what is known publicly. Aiyuk was with the team in TC, participating in limited practices, and rehabbing after his guarantees were voided. His guarantees were voided in July. He was with the team in August.

Without knowing what he did that allowed the 49ers to void his guarantees, we don't have an accurate picture. Did he miss a rehab assignment or multiple rehab assignments. Did he miss a team meeting, or multiple team meetings? It clearly wasn't the case that he had abandoned the team at that time.

If your requirement in having a "valid" opinion on it is you need every fact, then you would never have an opinion on anything.

Here is what we know:

1. Aiyuk didn't practice at any point during the offseason/tc/preseason.

2. The 49ers voided his contract at some point, likely shortly after training camp.

3. This voiding of guarantees was not challenged by Aiyuk, his agent or the nflpa.

4. Many of aiyuks teammates say they heard very little from him, if at all, and haven't seen him around the facility in a long time.

So with all of those things considered, we can come to a conclusion that adds up. Again if your expectation is you need every piece of evidence before you can form an opinion on what happened, you're going to basically end up with "well I don't know! Anything is possible! Maybe any number of outlandish and insane events happened that would justify aiyuks side!".

Which is fine if you want to have no opinion on it, but I think most people can connect the dots