Brandon Aiyuk’s TikTok that appeared to show him saying the 49ers don’t want him contributed to the firehose of pessimism that has drenched the discussion around Aiyuk’s future with San Francisco. NFL Media’s Ian Rapoport on NFL Network shed some light on the Aiyuk-49ers negotiations.
Rapoport said that while he was surprised by the video, the negotiations are still ongoing.
“They do want him,” Rapoport said. “They just want him at their price. It is not a negotiation that to my knowledge is completely dead, they just have not done a deal yet. It’s pretty clear that Brandon Aiyuk wants the kind of money that Amon-Ra St. Brown ended up making – about $28 million average over the first three years of his deal – the 49ers are not there yet. They like him. They really like him. They just have not been able to come together on a deal. So maybe that’s kind of the feeling that Brandon Aiyuk was trying to give out.”
While the 49ers’ negotiation style that runs deals right up to training camp or beyond is nerve-wracking and lends itself to discourse like what we’ve seen around Aiyuk, it has also been successful. It’s a good sign that Rapoport’s reporting indicates negotiations are still going and that the 49ers do in fact want Aiyuk.
If Rapoport’s (or another insider’s) tone changes, then it might be time for 49ers fans to panic. Until then though, most of this is par for the course.
