Wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk hasn’t stepped foot on an NFL field since Week 7 of the 2024 season. However, on Sunday the embattled pass catcher broke his silence regarding where he and the team stood heading into the 2026 campaign.
“We dealing with, ya know like them kids when they don’t get picked for the basketball game at the court, but they the ones that brought the ball, so they like, ‘Alright, you all don’t want to pick me, I’m taking my ball, I’m going home.’ Ass boys. Little-ass boys,” Aiyuk said via social media.
“Or like when your kid, he got this one toy, but he don’t really know how to use it correctly, so somebody else about to pick it up and play with it. And they like, ‘Oh yeah, this s— litty.’ And they like, wait, wait, wait, wait, hold on, that’s my toy. Ass boy. Little-ass boy.”
“Man, stop running from the bill. The bill coming. You scared. They scared. Truth is, they scared. They know how I get. They gonna say, ‘Oh yeah, BA, BA, BA did this, BA did that. BA did, you know that s—, allegedly. Allegedly. But what they not gonna say is, ‘BA suck at football,’ cause they know how I get. And they running from that bill that’s on the way.
“It’s inevitable. It’s coming. Stop running. Stop being a female dog. Stop being a little cat. Stop running from the bill.”
The message comes a few days after the Santa Clara County DA’s office issued an arrest warrant for Aiyuk stemming from a traffic incident back in December. While this latest legal drama likely isn’t helping move things between the 49ers and the wide receiver along, it would appear as though the disconnect between the two sides runs far deeper than just an isolated off field incident.
After tearing his ACL in 2024, San Francisco was rumoured to be actively shopping the wide receiver in offseason. Something that evidently didn’t sit well with the 28 year old. Despite the team holding out hope that he would rejoin them midseason, Aiyuk never suited up in 2025, and published some cryptic social media posts which appeared to throw shade at the 49ers organization in the ensuing months.
According to GM John Lynch, Aiyuk stopped coming in to the team facility and “disengaged” communications with the club sometime around January. Despite the apparent souring of the relationship, the 49ers have remained steadfast in their insistence that they do not plan to release the WR, but remain open to trading him should a suitable offer be made.
With teams now being past the June 1st hurdle on the calendar, if San Francisco were to trade Aiyuk, they would now only incur an $8.3M dead money hit. A trade appears to be the most likely outcome from the standoff, with Lynch having previously gone on the record stating that it was “safe to say” that Aiyuk wouldn’t suit up for the club again in the future.
What kind of an offer another club would need to present to Lynch & Co. to rid them of the off field drama remains to be seen. But given the fact that Aiyuk hasn’t taken an NFL snap since suffering a major knee injury, and the public nature of the spat between the two sides, one would have to assume that San Francisco doesn’t have much in the way of bargaining power if another team were to come calling.
Photo: All-Pro Reels. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.