Niners Nation
Brandon Aiyuk’s once cryptic posts on Instagram are more and more obvious—and less cryptic—by the day.
The soon-to-be-former San Francisco 49ers wide receiver has continued his campaign, or at this point, plea, to get the 49ers to release him. Before we get to our main event, we’ll highlight some of the other things brought up this week. Please note that keeping up with the timeline of Aiyuk’s Instagram posts is a job all of its own, but I think I found most of the notable ones. First is another video posted about him joining the Washington Commanders and his “mood”:
Shortly thereafter, he posted a video of himself running. Because after getting both of your knee tendons blasted, showing a video of you running inspires confidence in your audience:
Aiyuk also listed his issue was with the 49ers via an Instagram post saying the following:
If you’re curious on that 17-month window, 17 months into the past puts us to February 2025, right where the 2024 NFL season wraps up. So if this is true, Aiyuk didn’t get any cash after February. Most of the issues surrounding his guaranteed money (or at least the reports of such) and voids that came with it, hit midway through the 2025 NFL season so that’s a lid on it if there ever was one. The 49ers went after Aiyuk’s guarantees in the 2025 offseason so this still checks out. Again, February.
And now we have the main event. Another Instagram post where Aiyuk informs us of a few things:
In that final video, he says, “No, I didn’t miss rehab; I just didn’t rehab with y’all.”
After seeing a video of him running and then a follow-up with that explanation, I paused and asked myself: “Since when was this about him missing rehab? In the thousands of words speculated, analyzed, edited, etc. about this mess, when was missing rehab ever the reason his guaranteed money was voided?
This had nothing to do with whether or not Aiyuk was rehabbing even for five minutes. It has everything to do with him not rehabbing at the 49ers’ facility and ghosting them—which Aiyuk states. So basically, Aiyuk confirms what has been reported on the 49ers’ side of things.
Outside of the Aiyuk/49ers brouhaha, there’s all the NFL executives—both current and former—growing in number at the corner opposite Aiyuk. You can add former 49ers general manager Scot McCloughan to that ever-growing list:
“When they drafted him, I said he is a number 1 receiver talent wise, but you be very very careful with the character. At Arizona State he got in trouble there too. Herm Edwards was the coach and he said ‘Listen, he’s a wildcard. We don’t know if he’s going to show up. We don’t know if he’s...
