At 28, in the prime of his life, Brandon Aiyuk didn’t play a single snap in 2025.
Some might argue that Aiyuk’s prime came in 2023, when he led the San Francisco 49ers with 1,342 receiving yards. The problem is, he’s only played in seven games since, and things aren’t looking too rosy for him to make his way back from NFL exile.
Super Bowl Champ Calls on 49ers To Release Brandon Aiyuk
49ers training camp has already begun, but Aiyuk is nowhere to be found.
There’s a school of thought that the 49ers have been holding him hostage.
In fact, that’s exactly what LeSean McCoy, a two-time Super Bowl champion, recently said on his ‘Speakeasy’ podcast.
“You want to talk about the players that’s there,” McCoy said. “If he can’t help y’all out and he’s such a problem and a distraction, let him go. If he is a distraction like y’all saying he is, and y’all don’t want him for all these different reasons and he’s doing all this stuff that y’all don’t like and he’s making the organization look bad, the narrative that you are saying, cool. Why you holding him hostage though?”
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McCoy went on to suggest that other coaches would be quick to move on from a player who doesn’t align with their vision for the team. Yet, the 49ers have, for whatever reason, been unwilling to move on from Aiyuk.
“Because I feel like any other coach that don’t like a player, don’t like what he represents, either they trade him, or they cut him,” McCoy argued. “Y’all not trying to do neither of that. You replace him with a first-rounder (Ricky Pearsall) and Mike Evans. You got Christian McCaffrey; he’s back. Kittle, he’ll be back. Purdy gonna be back. Kyle is going to be back from his injury. You got everything you want.
“Y’all got a great team. Why do you need Aiyuk? He’s such a distraction, such a bad kid. A locker room cancer? Let him go. There’s something there, I’m telling y’all. My new favorite player in the NFL, there’s something there. Let the dude go. If he’s so crazy, let it be another team’s problem.”
Chances are, the biggest reason the 49ers haven’t ripped the band-aid off with Aiyuk is that he has a large cap number for the 2026 season. After all, he’s entering season two of a four-year, $120 million contract extension.
Per Spotrac, releasing Aiyuk outright would incur a dead cap charge of $29.5 million. That’s a lot to stomach for a player who won’t be on the roster in 2026.
The good news is that Aiyuk’s salary would be entirely off the books heading into 2027, and they’d get rid of what’s potentially become a distraction.
Yet, clearly the 49ers haven’t been willing to do that. Whether that changes before the season gets underway remains to be seen. For now, they’re “holding Aiyuk hostage,” according to McCoy.
