The San Francisco 49ers are not in any hurry to bring an official end to the Brandon Aiyuk era. The wide receiver’s relationship with the team has deteriorated, but he is still on the roster, technically.
That will have to end at some point, although the Niners may choose to wait as long as possible as they try to get a team to trade for him so they can still get at least a draft pick out of the whole mess.
The whole saga has gone on for so long, and many fans just want it to end. But it is telling how TJ Houshmandzadeh, a former NFL receiver and Aiyuk’s personal coach, is talking about Aiyuk.
Houshmandzadeh appeared on a recent podcast and said the following about Aiyuk:
"If anybody gives [Aiyuk] a crazy amount of money, they should be fired tomorrow. No owner is gonna allow a GM to pay BA that type of money after the way he just acted in San Francisco."
It’s pretty remarkable for Houshmandzadeh to speak so frankly about a guy he would coach and help in the offseason, but it shows just how obvious it is that Aiyuk is damaged goods at this point, both literally and figuratively.
Teams are not going to be lining up to throw money at a guy who suffered a major knee injury, hasn’t played since 2024, and who also has created a lot of problems and had his contract voided for not cooperating with the team on his rehab.
That is so many red flags that it really would be malpractice for a team to give Aiyuk anything other than a one-year “prove it” deal to see if he is healthy and can actually show up and not be a problem for a season.
The Washington Commanders have made sense as a destination, and it seems clear the Niners are still doing whatever they can to get general manager Adam Peters to throw them a bone and give them a draft pick in exchange for Aiyuk.
The Niners sort of did him a solid last offseason by trading Deebo Samuel for a fifth-round pick, so maybe Peters could find it in the goodness of his heart to give San Francisco a seventh-round pick for Aiyuk.
No matter what, his contract will surely be re-worked to be a very team-friendly deal, and Houshmandzadeh knows better than anyone that the guy is a risk to take a chance on even if he has shown a ton of potential when healthy.