Brandon Aiyuk has agreed to a new contract with the San Francisco 49ers, worth $120million over four years, after being involved in trade talks during the off-season
Brandon Aiyuk has seemingly admitted that his involvement in trade talks with the Pittsburgh Steelers and Washington Commanders might have made things tough for the San Francisco 49ers before he inked a deal to stay with the team.
Despite showing up for the Niners’ training camp, Aiyuk chose not to participate in practice sessions, staging a ‘hold in’ while pushing for a contract extension despite being on a rookie deal.
The 26 year old wide receiver finally signed a lucrative four-year, $120 million (£91m) extension last week, which includes $76 ($57m) million guaranteed, catapulting him into the ranks of the NFL’s top-earning receivers.
After a prolonged period of negotiations, head coach Kyle Shanahan admitted they had let Aiyuk look into trade possibilities, ready to trade him if the right offer came along. However, no such offer materialised, leading to San Francisco securing an extension with Aiyuk, who now expresses some remorse over how he managed the situation, reports the Mirror US.
Speaking to journalists, Aiyuk said: “I’m not going to lie, I made it a little bit more difficult than I needed to at the end… I think we’re good now.”
He also mentioned: “I just had a feel for what I wanted, not just in terms of money, but in all those things. Ultimately, I wanted to be here and ended up being here. So I’m happy and ready to go.”
Aiyuk, the 49ers’ wide receiver, has expressed regret over his decision to ‘hold in’ and not participate in practice during training camp while waiting for his contract extension. He admitted: “It was tough. That was probably the hardest part about the whole thing, just because, at that point, you’ve got the rest of the team involved. I’m here every single day. They’re suiting up, getting ready to go out to practice, and I’m not. So that was the hard part.”
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