The San Francisco 49ers don't want to give Brandon Aiyuk reward for his erratic behaviour, but has the benefit of keeping him on the inactive list finally been outweighed by the headache he could cause for the season?
Sometimes, professional sports has all the grace and decorum of recess in a kindergarten or an elementary school.
It seems almost daily, Brandon Aiyuk is the kid that's prodding and pulling the hair of someone else saying, "Is this bothering you yet? Is this bothering you yet?".
Read More: Brandon Aiyuk can't stop doubling down on headache-inducing social media posts
The San Francisco 49ers, to their credit, have been pretty steady in not rising to the bait of the most recent antics, which may be crossing the line from juvenile antics to legally troubling.
Given there's no football, not even training camp, it's understandable to see this doing the runs in the media. We've seen some ridiculous claims on both the pro-Aiyuk and pro-Niners side from the bizarre claim from Sports Illustrated's Grant Cohn that Aiyuk somehow hasn't done anything wrong, to that Aiyuk is the new Antonio Brown, according to Emmanuel Acho:
How I see the Brandon Aiyuk saga.
— Grant Cohn (@grantcohn) March 13, 2026
>The 49ers reluctantly gave Aiyuk a fat contract because Kyle Shanahan told them to.
>Aiyuk got injured.
>Aiyuk rehabbed away from the team.
>The 49ers found a loophole in the contract that allowed them to get out of it if he rehabbed away from…
"Brandon Aiyuk is on an Antonio Brown trajectory without the Antonio Brown talent"
— Speakeasy (@speakeasytlkshw) June 25, 2026
– @EmmanuelAcho does NOT mince words about Brandon Aiyuk's latest video saying he will "...sign with the Commanders tomorrow"
WE'RE STILL LIVE ⬇️ https://t.co/71DOlQim57 pic.twitter.com/tPMSuO2A0X
The truth is something a bit more in the middle.
Aiyuk is not blameless, but neither is he the kind of person Brown is either. This is just useless hyperbole. The real question is, at which point does the Aiyuk distraction outweigh San Francisco's need to retain him?
Why it might be time for 49ers and Brandon Aiyuk to finalize their divorce
Every year, it feels like the 49ers are mired in some sort of contract drama that draws attention away from the preseason. On this front, the Niners actually haven't had those issues (unless you count Aiyuk's contract being voided) but replaced them instead with this.
The 49ers hardly want to reward Aiyuk for his behavior, but there's a legitimate question to be asked here: Does the benefit of keeping the receiver on the inactive list outweigh the negative of him being such a distraction as San Francisco looks towards the new season?
I'm not so sure.
Aiyuk may even have torpedoed his own career as it is. He may want to go to the Washington Commanders, but do the Commanders want to deal with such a headache even on a minimal deal?
I'm not so sure on that either.
But what can reasonably be known is the Niners are not going to get any sort of trade, even a seventh-round pick, for Aiyuk now. There's no positive to drawing this out for San Francisco, outside of keeping Aiyuk in name, only if nothing else.
The 49ers should aim to go into the season with no distractions. Aiyuk is a distraction. While the Niners could make their point further, sometimes you just have to cut your losses.
Aiyuk and the 49ers have been headed to a divorce for some time now, and it's time to file the paperwork and make it official.
Add us as a preferred source on Google