As the contract dispute between the San Francisco 49ers and wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk draws closer to training camp by the day, there's been very little provided on the update front.
Aiyuk is currently set to play the 2024 season under the team option worth $14.124M and would be a free agent following the season, pending the team's decision to possibly franchise tag him or work out a new deal.
The two sides have reportedly been negotiating a new deal since the end of the last season. While tight end George Kittle admitted to having no inside information on the discussions, he did provide some level of optimism recently.
During a recent appearance on The Rich Eisen Show, Kittle was asked about Aiyuk's contract situation and highlighted a few other deals the 49ers got done during training camp or near the start of the new season.
"I think, if you look at my career, being a Forty-Niner, and the way most of the contracts have gone, I didn't get signed until the second week of training camp, [WR] Deebo [Samuel] was pretty late [in 2022]," Kittle told Eisen via 49erswebzone.com. "[DE Nick] Bosa was [right before] the first week of [last] season. That's just how business is done out there.
"I'm not in the meetings. I have no idea [how negotiations are progressing]. I actually go out of my way to not talk to anybody going through contract negotiations, so when people ask me questions, I have absolutely no idea. But, I'm not concerned about it."
Finally, Kittle praised Aiyuk's talent and said he assumes the wideout will be with the team when the season begins.
"Aiyuk's a phenomenal football player who's a big part of our offense, and he's one of the most complete receivers that I've ever played with. So I'm gonna assume that Aiyuk's gonna be on our team by the time the season starts."
As things currently stand, four wide receivers are averaging $30M per year or more, and 10 averaging $24M per year or more. Aiyuk is coming off a superb year in which he totaled 1,342 and seven touchdowns. Over the past two seasons combined, he's caught 153 passes for 2,357 yards and 15 touchdowns.
