Everything to know about Brandon Aiyuk, odd social media posts and 49ers trolling

It’s been a minute since we’ve seen it from him, but Brandon Aiyuk was really good. During the San Francisco 49ers’ 2023 season, he ripped off a cool 1,300 receiving yards and seven receiving touchdowns in his first All-Pro season. It was pretty awesome, and he ended up signing a four-year contract for $120 million before the 2024 season.

Now, if you do a quick Google of “Brandon Aiyuk,” the top thing says “Brandon Aiyuk vows not to report to San Francisco.” So how did we get here? It only took a year and a half, but it’s been a hell of a (weird) ride. 

The Injury

2024 didn’t start too hot for Aiyuk. Through Week 6, he had five games with fewer than 50 receiving yards. Then, against the Chiefs in Week 7, he got tackled by Trent McDuffie while Chamarri Conner came in from the side and annihilated Aiyuk's ACL and MCL; a classic case of ‘Blown out knee.’

In the summer of 2025, the 49ers put him on the Physically Unable to Perform (PUP) list going into the season. That’s all kosher stuff, especially when it's a mondo-sized knee injury. 

PUP list guys have to be out for the first four games of the season. They’re still able to go to the facility for meetings and medical stuff; the only thing is that they can’t practice. That’s where the first big hiccup in this whole thing takes place.

The Absentee

On Nov. 21, 2025, there were reports that the 49ers voided Aiyuk’s guaranteed money for the 2026 season because he wasn’t doing anything that you want a player on the PUP list to do … Specifically, the whole part where he had to show up to work. 

To top that off, Aiyuk decided not to file a grievance with the NFL Players Association. Essentially, he said, ‘Yeah. What they’re doing makes sense.’

This whole thing was massive because the whole goal of being a professional NFL player (aside from winning a championship) is getting guaranteed money. When that’s taken away … WOOF. 

This is when everything started to spiral out of control: the 49ers had the rights to Aiyuk, but the dude just wasn’t there … Kind of. 

On Dec. 13, the 49ers put him on the reserved/left squad list. On Dec. 20, he posted a video to his YouTube channel: “Introducing the new Ct5 V Black-wing. Cadillacs version of the Dodge Hellcat,” thinking that he was being very clever. In reality, it was just a video of him hitting 100 miles per hour as he drove by Levi’s Stadium.

The Fallout

In his post-season press conference, John Lynch, the 49ers GM, was asked about Aiyuk because everything was super weird. He said, “It’s safe to say [Aiyuk’s] played his last snap as a Niner” … Uh. Yeah, duh. 

At this point, the 49ers only had two real options. Try to release him or trade him. Releasing him doesn’t do a whole lot. The 49ers have the most cap space of any team in the NFL right now, so any savings that they would get are pretty much negligible in the grand scheme of things.

The problem with trading him is that it was/is abundantly clear that the 49ers have absolutely zero leverage in any trade negotiation. That’s what makes this situation even tougher for San Fran. If they want to trade him, whichever team gets him is going to be on the hook for $26-ish million. That number could change if the front office and Aiyuk restructure his contract, but MAN … Aiyuk has made himself incredibly unavailable.

That can end up being a good thing for the team, though. If Aiyuk reports to training camp, his contract is going to kick back into gear, and he’ll end up getting that $26 million. If he doesn’t show up (and it really seems like he won’t show up; we’ll get to that in a second), then the 49ers don’t have to pay him a penny. 

The Breakdown

This is the most recent and, though entertaining at times, sad part. Aiyuk’s been doing some WEIRD stuff online. He’s posting and deleting a whole bunch of videos. However, it’s 2026, and even if you delete something, it’s still out there. 

It seems like he knows what he’s doing too, which is also weird. He censors himself sometimes, which is a weird level of self-awareness for a guy who’s losing his mind. I’ll link the videos where I can, but it’s more uncomfortable and bizarre than it is interesting. Regardless, here’s the gist:

Near the beginning of June, he posted a video talking about how the 49ers are scared to trade him. He said that they were like a kid who brought a basketball to a court but didn’t get picked for a team and decided to take their ball and go home. If that sentence didn’t make sense … Yeah, that’s because it doesn’t. The dude is mixing all kinds of metaphors. 

Luckily, he clarified with another bit of rhetoric: “When your kid, he got this one toy, but he doesn’t know how to play with it. So somebody else is about to pick it up and play with it, and they say, ‘Oh, this s--- litty!’ And [your kid] says, ‘wait, wait, wait. That’s my toy.”

It doesn’t make a lick of sense, but he’s very clearly mad at the team that tried to pay him big money.

A day after he posted that video, Aiyuk made another one saying that the 49ers are mad because they’re stupid and dumb for paying him … So, self-burn? Whatever, it was weird. 

The guy just wants to play for the Commanders … like, he really wants to play for the Commanders. One reason is that Jayden Daniels was his quarterback when they were both at Arizona State, but also because Adam Peters is Washington’s general manager (he was the 49ers GM who drafted Aiyuk). If there’s any team that could maybe trade for him, it’d be the Commanders.

He’s posted pictures of himself geotagged as being in Virginia … You might be able to convince yourself that he's just visiting and that doesn’t mean anything towards his inclination to wanting a trade. 

But then you take into account that he follows five accounts on Instagram: Jayden Daniels, the Commanders, his wife, Adidas, and his own fashion(?) brand. 

Then, he posted a video on Father's Day where he just started saying “Go Commanders” and “Raise Hail.”

Then, he posted a video standing in a closet and throwing wads of cash onto the ground … you know … like we all do? He followed that up with a banger where he said that he was going back on tour and if you wanted to buy tickets to see him, that you could go to “www.Commanders.com.” 

The most important video that he posted was the one where he said that he didn’t have an agent because he terminated them last year. Maybe he’s telling the truth, or maybe he’s trying to save face because his agent said, ‘Hey man, you're doing way too much. We’re out.’ The path doesn’t really matter; what does is the part where he doesn’t have representation … because without that representation, there’s not going to be a soul from his camp that steps foot into the 49ers’ building. 

He later went on to say that John Lynch is a creep, called the 49ers weirdos and predators, and called Kyle Shanahan a toddler. I would argue that this is a ‘pot calling the kettle black’ situation, but hey … What do I know?

Regardless, the guy is off his rocker, and now he’s saying that he wants the NFLPA to help him out. I couldn’t possibly tell you what it is that he wants the PA to do, given that this entire thing rests on him, but at least this is a more normal avenue to go than ranting into a phone without ever looking into the camera. 

If there is a bottom line to all of this, Aiyuk has everything to both lose and gain. All he has to do is show up in San Francisco, and he’ll be able to help the team work out a trade or a contract negotiation that could lead to a trade. If he stays true to his word, he’s not going to do that, and this whole thing is going to keep going on for a long time. 

Again, it’s 2026, and people do all kinds of weird stuff on the internet every single day … But what Aiyuk is doing is deliciously uncomfortable. The dude is absolutely going through it right now. 

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