49ers news: Brandon Aiyuk reveals hardest part of negotiation process

The San Francisco 49ers reached an agreement with star wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk on a contract extension last week, inking him to a four-year deal worth $120 million with $77 million in total guarantees.

The agreement ended a months-long standoff between Aiyuk and the 49ers, and it came at the right time, as San Francisco is now set to prepare for their Week 1 opponent, the New York Jets, with their star receiver back in the fold.

However, there were times where things looked bleak between the two sides, as Aiyuk had requested a trade, while reports came out suggesting a move elsewhere could be the likeliest outcome.

Did the wideout himself believe that could be a true outcome?

“I think there was times where I had to kind of, you know, get my mind right for [a trade] being a possibility, yeah,” Aiyuk acknowledged at a press conference Tuesday.

At the end of the day though, the wideout remained where he wanted to be all along, signing a deal that keeps him in San Francisco through the 2028 season.

Throughout the process, Aiyuk looked to keep in contact with his teammates, especially the ones who went through a similar situation, which was helpful in getting the deal done.

“I talked to George [Kittle]. I talked to [Nick] Bosa a lot, Deebo [Samuel] a lot,” Aiyuk said. “Just trying to figure out certain things, get their feel for certain things, and just being able to talk with them through the process was huge. But also just being able to see them, be around them every single day for now, just inserting myself right back in.”

One of the tougher parts of the whole situation for Aiyuk was not being able to be with his teammates on the practice field, as he conducted a hold-in while searching for an extension.

Over the past few offseasons, the wideout had been one of the more dominant practice players for the 49ers in training camp, making highlight play after highlight play. Of course, that wasn’t the case this offseason, as Aiyuk was more of a shadow that emerged here and there, watching from the sidelines.

“It was tough,” Aiyuk acknowledged about holding in, but not practicing. “That was probably the hardest part about the whole thing, just because at that point, you got the rest of the team involved. I’m here every single day. They were suiting up, getting ready to go out to practice, and I’m not.”

“So that was the hard part. But on that same tone, I was able to be in meetings and be able to go through all the stuff that they got to go through and kind of still be involved, get used to being here in the morning, be used to being here all day, having the treatment, having everything I need. So, it was a little awkward, but I think it worked out how it needed to.”

It seemed like things were going to reach an even more intense standoff last week when general manager John Lynch and head coach Kyle Shanahan revealed they expected Aiyuk to practice after being medically cleared. That didn’t happen, of course, leading to even more discussion about when a deal would finally get done.

“I’m not gonna lie, I made it a little bit more difficult than I needed to at the end,” Aiyuk said. “But, yeah, I mean, it was like that, I’m not gonna say the whole entire time, but for about the past month, I think we were pretty good.”

Now, Aiyuk is officially back with the 49ers and he’ll look to quickly ramp up ahead of the season with hopes of playing in full capacity against the New York Jets in Week 1, which will be a Monday Night Football game at Levi’s Stadium.