For several months, San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk was looking for a big contract extension, and he finally got it, agreeing to a four-year, $120 million deal.
Some accused him of being selfish by refusing to try to extend his term, but that is old news now.
Speaking to the media recently, Aiyuk acknowledged his role in the troubling nature of the negotiations.
“I’m not gonna lie. I made it harder than it needed to be at the end,” Aiyuk said, via 95.7 The Game .
“I’m not going to lie. I ended up making it more difficult than it needed to be.”
Brandon Aiyuk on contract talks 😂 pic.twitter.com/yxLf5wFHIu
— 95.7 The Game (@957thegame) September 3, 2024
According to reports, the deal that Aiyuk eventually agreed to had been on the table for about three weeks.
Meanwhile, there was a possibility that he would be sold to the Pittsburgh Steelers, but the 49ers did not like the offer.
So, they worked to find a way to get another suitable wideout back and reportedly tried to acquire Courtland Sutton from the Denver Broncos, who scored 10 touchdowns last year.
But Denver rejected San Francisco’s offer, and Aiyuk eventually signed.
He’s the Niners’ top option in the passing game, as he led them in receptions (75) and receiving yards (1,342) last season, and at 26, he could continue to increase that production going forward.
Now that both Aiyuk and star left tackle Trent Williams have gotten the contracts they want, the Niners can focus on keeping the main thing the main thing without the business side of football getting in the way.
While they undoubtedly have the best roster in the NFL, San Francisco hasn’t won a Super Bowl championship since the 1994 season, and there’s a lot of pressure on them to finally bring home another Vince Lombardi Trophy.
next:
Deebo Samuel warns fans about the dangers of recording athletes
!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)
{if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?
n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};
if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version=’2.0′;
n.queue=();t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;
t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)(0);
s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window, document,’script’,
‘https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js’);
fbq(‘init’, ‘440146925278394’);
fbq(‘track’, ‘PageView’);