Of the many anti-San Francisco 49ers social media posts and videos disgruntled wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk has posted over recent weeks, one showing him pulling out handfuls of cash from a backpack might want ot be approached with more caution.
Aiyuk might need that money to pay back the Niners.
San Francisco already voided his guarantees for 2026 and 2027, avoiding having to pay $26 million this season after the received failed to meet contractual terms of his deal, reportedly including check-ins with the 49ers amid his recovery and rehabilitation efforts from the 2024 ACL and MCL tears.
Aiyuk's recent actions seem to indicate he feels as if the Niners can do nothing more to him, hence the slander directed at the franchise, head coach Kyle Shanahan and general manager John Lynch.
But, according to NBC Sports Bay Area's Matt Maiocco, shared via Sports Illustrated's Grant Cohn, the receiver is wrong.
And San Francisco can bite back hard with one potential last act against Aiyuk before inevitably letting him walk.
49ers can go after $18-plus million more already paid to Brandon Aiyuk
Voiding those guarantees was one thing, and Aiyuk continued to brag about how the 49ers already paid him $50 million over a 12-month period.
According to Maiocco, though, the Niners can go after a hefty chunk of that cash. And they almost certainly will.
Brandon Aiyuk gave the 49ers an incredible gift, an incredible out, by not fulfilling the terms of his contract and defaulting on it after he got injured with the torn ACL.
By him not showing up to rehab sessions, check-in sessions and everything else, by him not following the terms of his contract, he gave the 49ers the incredible opening to void the remaining guarantees of his contract, and I believe it also gives them the ability to go after a lot of the money that they have already paid him.
Not only will the 49ers not have to pay him another penny, whereas if he had just shown up, the 49ers would have been on the hook for $27 million for this year, it also enables the 49ers to get a lot of money back. I don't know the exact numbers that they will be able to get back from Aiyuk, but I would put it somewhere between $13.8 million and $18.4 million.
So, on the $23 million signing bonus, which is basically an advance for future performance, it comes out to $4.6 million per year for those five years. If the 49ers voided his contract a year ago in late July, they could get as much as $18.4 million back. Whatever the case may be, the 49ers are certainly going after that money, and there is no representation right now for Aiyuk, according to him.
If Maiocco is correct, Aiyuk will need to write a check to San Francisco for up to $18.4 million—a lot of cash he probably wishes he didn't toss on the floor in one of his social media posts.
Had the receiver either shown up, or perhaps at least kept silent on social media, perhaps the 49ers would've had no reason to recoup that money.
But the Niners are in no mood to cut Aiyuk any slack before they officially cut him.
Ouch.
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