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

Originally posted by 9ers4eva:

Originally posted by father49er:
Players squandering their careers happens more often than I used to think. Aldon Smith, Ruben Foster, to name a couple of recent 49er examples.

The mental part is very hard to forecast.

probably getting easier now... there is so much weird in college America it normalizes non productive personality traits. Plus, with the money hitting college players these days...that will just magnify potential personality short comings.

With any luck it helps expose cancerous personalities earlier..

Originally posted by Dshearn:

Originally posted by 9ers4eva:

Originally posted by father49er:
Players squandering their careers happens more often than I used to think. Aldon Smith, Ruben Foster, to name a couple of recent 49er examples.

The mental part is very hard to forecast.

probably getting easier now... there is so much weird in college America it normalizes non productive personality traits. Plus, with the money hitting college players these days...that will just magnify potential personality short comings.

With any luck it helps expose cancerous personalities earlier..

I struggle to see how college makes you non productive but yeah ok buddy

College does what? LULZ.

Originally posted by Young2Owens:
I struggle to see how college makes you non productive but yeah ok buddy

lol.....

You struggle to see how many avenues exist for non productive degrees, hobbies and life styles? Stuff that would not mesh well for someone perusing a career in a uber competitive field?

Let's make sure the conversation doesn't stray from football guys...feels like we're going into a different direction.

I will say that NIL money is making it a little easier to see how some of these kids handle money so that should be a slight help but some guys were getting money before, just under the table. It still won't give a team a great read on whether a guy is all in or not.

Originally posted by riverrunzthruit:
Shanny almost traded him to the Burgh, I bet he is kicking himself now

Originally posted by Kolohe:
How is it Shanahan and Lynch's fault, they just wanted to mend things between them before his extension and after. 9ers had a trade in place with the Steelers, but Shanahan talked Aiyuk out of wanting to be traded one last time. If anything Aiyuk b***hed out of being traded because all he wants to do is be with his friend. He could've moved forward with the trade and went to the Steelers, but he's doing the same s**t as last year!!!

"Aiyuk bitched out" is an interesting way of putting it, as if this fanbase didn't collectively spaz out when Aiyuk said "pay me or trade me" that August.

It was Paraag that was insistent on trading Aiyuk before the draft that year. Lynch was either too greedy or sabotaging the effort. Let's not forget, Lynch agreed to the trade with the Steelers for their 2nd and 3rd round 2025 picks but refused to submit the trade to the league. This was after they leaked the Browns offer and both Pats offers hoping they could get the Steelers to bid against themselves (spoiler: they were already talking to Aiyuk at that point and knew he wasn't interested in NE/CLE). Aiyuk and the Steelers had already agreed to an extension, the same extension the Steelers offered him before the draft. The 49ers spent all of August trying to flip the Steelers 3rd round pick for a suitable replacement X. We know the LV said no about Adams and DEN said no about Sutton.

As others already said, Shanahan was the one to come in at the end and force Paraag to stop extend him. Since then, all the front office (see: Paraag) has talked about is how much they regret giving the extension and wanting to move on from it. They were telling that to reporters while Aiyuk was recovering and peeing through a catheter. He shows up at the start of last season, is practicing on the side fields. Everything seems fine until Shanahan and Lynch start dodging questions about Aiyuk's return. "Week-to-week" they kept saying. I wouldn't be shocked if someone made the call to not activate him off IR so they would avoid risk of reinjury then trade him in the offseason.

Originally posted by genus49:
Let's make sure the conversation doesn't stray from football guys...feels like we're going into a different direction.

I will say that NIL money is making it a little easier to see how some of these kids handle money so that should be a slight help but some guys were getting money before, just under the table. It still won't give a team a great read on whether a guy is all in or not.

Are we keeping it about football or are we taking indirect shots at his character? Your comment is reading like the latter.

Originally posted by riverrunzthruit:
Shanny almost traded him to the Burgh, I bet he is kicking himself now

I can see why Kyle wanted to keep him, he was so productive in '22 and '23. But yeah, the entire front office is probably kicking themselves.

Originally posted by Typecast:
"Aiyuk bitched out" is an interesting way of putting it, as if this fanbase didn't collectively spaz out when Aiyuk said "pay me or trade me" that August.

It was Paraag that was insistent on trading Aiyuk before the draft that year. Lynch was either too greedy or sabotaging the effort. Let's not forget, Lynch agreed to the trade with the Steelers for their 2nd and 3rd round 2025 picks but refused to submit the trade to the league. This was after they leaked the Browns offer and both Pats offers hoping they could get the Steelers to bid against themselves (spoiler: they were already talking to Aiyuk at that point and knew he wasn't interested in NE/CLE). Aiyuk and the Steelers had already agreed to an extension, the same extension the Steelers offered him before the draft. The 49ers spent all of August trying to flip the Steelers 3rd round pick for a suitable replacement X. We know the LV said no about Adams and DEN said no about Sutton.

As others already said, Shanahan was the one to come in at the end and force Paraag to stop extend him. Since then, all the front office (see: Paraag) has talked about is how much they regret giving the extension and wanting to move on from it. They were telling that to reporters while Aiyuk was recovering and peeing through a catheter. He shows up at the start of last season, is practicing on the side fields. Everything seems fine until Shanahan and Lynch start dodging questions about Aiyuk's return. "Week-to-week" they kept saying. I wouldn't be shocked if someone made the call to not activate him off IR so they would avoid risk of reinjury then trade him in the offseason.

Have any idea/theory on what specifically happened that allowed the 49ers to void his guarantees?

Originally posted by SmokeyJoe:
Have any idea/theory on what specifically happened that allowed the 49ers to void his guarantees?

After the reports of the team having regrets and wanting to dump him, he didn't show when required. That gave the team cause to void his guarantees.

Originally posted by Typecast:
After the reports of the team having regrets and wanting to dump him, he didn't show when required. That gave the team cause to void his guarantees.

I just was wondering if you had any guess around the specifics.

It seems pretty obvious the top priority was to get out of the contract, so I have been curious about what exactly it was that gave them the ability to void those guarantees. Was it a major thing, minor thing etc? Something they would have forgiven had they actually been willing to honor the deal.

The majority of people here seem to think he abandoned the team completely and then they voided his guarantees, but that goes against publicly known knowledge… some of which you referenced above.

He didn't abandon the team until November, when it was publicly leaked that the team had voided his guarantees back in July*. In the press conference where Shanahan addressed questions over the news, he said Aiyuk had been in the building the prior Friday. It was 3-4 weeks later they placed him on the left-squad/reserve list and at that time Shanahan stated publicly that he hadn't seen Aiyuk in a month.

Originally posted by SmokeyJoe:

Originally posted by Typecast:
After the reports of the team having regrets and wanting to dump him, he didn't show when required. That gave the team cause to void his guarantees.

I just was wondering if you had any guess around the specifics.

It seems pretty obvious the top priority was to get out of the contract, so I have been curious about what exactly it was that gave them the ability to void those guarantees. Was it a major thing, minor thing etc? Something they would have forgiven had they actually been willing to honor the deal.

The majority of people here seem to think he abandoned the team completely and then they voided his guarantees, but that goes against publicly known knowledge… some of which you referenced above.

He didn't abandon the team until it was publicly leaked that the team had voided his guarantees in November. In the press conference where Shanahan addressed questions over the news, he said Aiyuk had been in the building the prior Friday. It was 3-4 weeks later they placed him on the left-squad/reserve list and at that time Shanahan stated publicly that he hadn't seen Aiyuk in a month.

Nah. He stopped showing up to required meetings which put him in violation of his contract. The contract guarantees ended up getting voided in the summer. Then Aiyuk started showing up at the facility. Everything seemed fine and the beat reporters were talking about him getting activated in late September, early October. Lynch and Shanahan start getting dodgy about Aiyuk's timeline, then things just hit the fan in mid October. A month later, reports start coming out that Aiyuk hasn't been at the facility in a month and he quit.

Originally posted by Typecast:
Nah. He stopped showing up to required meetings which put him in violation of his contract. The contract guarantees ended up getting voided in the summer. Then Aiyuk started showing up at the facility. Everything seemed fine and the beat reporters were talking about him getting activated in late September, early October. Lynch and Shanahan start getting dodgy about Aiyuk's timeline, then things just hit the fan in mid October. A month later, reports start coming out that Aiyuk hasn't been at the facility in a month and he quit.

I edited my post for clarity because it was poorly written in relation to the timeline.

I meant he didn't abandon the team until November, when it was leaked that they voided his guarantees in July.

Even if you blame the team for everything why would you not respond to any other teams inquiring? It just doesn't seem like the guy wants to play football at all.

Originally posted by 9ers4eva:
Even if you blame the team for everything why would you not respond to any other teams inquiring? It just doesn't seem like the guy wants to play football at all.

Exactly, he checked out and continues to check out.