Ian Rapoport usually has a handle on contract standoffs in the NFL. But Brandon Aiyuk’s ongoing situation with the San Francisco 49ers has even him stumped.
Appearing on “The Pat McAfee Show” on Friday, Rapoport tried to parse Aiyuk’s social media strategy. The wide receiver has been posting constantly on Instagram, making his displeasure public and his preferred destination known. Rapoport called it “weird” and said most players in Aiyuk’s shoes get talked out of this kind of public campaign by the people around them.
“I think the idea is you create enough noise, enough negative publicity, you become so toxic that the 49ers will go, ‘Okay, I can’t deal with this anymore. I’m tired of the headlines. I’m just going to cut him,'” Rapoport said. “They seem to not want to. And the fact that he has already identified his next landing spot, my guess is, would make them angrier. But, man. This has gotten weird.”
That landing spot is Washington. Aiyuk has made it about as clear as a guy can without actually saying it in a press conference. The Commanders are his team of choice, and he’s not being subtle about it.
Rapoport pointed out the thing that makes this unusual: players under contract usually have people close to them telling them to cool it. “Listen, if you just kinda be quiet, this is gonna be okay. Just don’t be that guy that everyone is gonna be annoyed with,” Rapoport said, describing the typical advice. “And he does not seem to be listening to people close to him at all and hasn’t been for some time.”
The money situation got real
The 49ers have already voided roughly $27 million in guaranteed money for next season. That’s a lot of leverage to burn through. Aiyuk is holding out, which means he’s not collecting game checks either. It’s an expensive way to make a point.
On Friday, Aiyuk added another layer. He claimed he fired his agent back in November 2025. If that’s true, it helps explain the Instagram barrage. No agent means no one running interference, no one telling him to let the professionals handle the messaging. It’s just Aiyuk and his phone.
Will the 49ers actually cut him?
Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated already floated that question earlier in the week — wondering why the 49ers haven’t just released him if the relationship has soured this badly. Rapoport seems to think the front office is just waiting it out, betting that Aiyuk’s stance softens before the season starts.
There’s no indication from the team that a release is coming. The 49ers have stayed quiet, which in itself is a response. They’re not bending. They’re not trading him cheap. And Aiyuk isn’t backing down.
For now, it’s a standoff with no obvious end. One side keeps posting. The other side keeps not flinching. And one insider is left trying to make sense of a strategy that looks like it was made up as it went along.
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