Right up until the final week of the 2025 season, analysts throughout most of the country were touting the San Francisco 49ers as a legitimate Super Bowl contender. This was by no means a silly position.
Under Kyle Shanahan, the 49ers had weathered a rash of injuries to remain in contention for the top seed in the NFC. With Super Bowl LX being played at Levi’s Stadium, San Francisco had a real chance to win the Lombardi Trophy without ever leaving the Bay.
Alas, it wasn’t to be. Seattle Seahawks fans who had watched their team evolve over the course of the magical 2026 season could plainly see that the Seahawks were simply better than their rivals in NorCal. The Rams? That was a different story. The Seahawks and the Rams were about as even as two teams could be. But not the Niners. They had fallen behind.
That point was hammered home in two games played in January, 2026. In the regular season finale, and then again in the divisional round of the playoffs, Seattle annihilated Kyle Shanahan’s men. 54-9 over the two games. More than twice as many yards on the ground. San Francisco was still a quality team, but something had clearly changed in this dynamic.
Seattle Seahawks' rival 49ers need to press the reset button and it begins with one simple move
Now, the 49ers are looking up at arguably the two best teams in the NFL playing in their own division. To get past both the Seahawks and the Rams will take another herculean effort from Shanahan. Kristopher Knox thinks the first step is to put an end to the messy Brandon Aiyuk saga.
General manager John Lynch gave Aiyuk a four-year extension just before the start of the 2024 season. 120 million dollars. 76 million guaranteed. Barely more than a year later, the team and the player were at each other’s throats. No need to rehash the details. Suffice to say that the 2023 All-Pro did not play a down in 2025 and both sides have made it clear a reconciliation is impossible.
So the 49ers need to move on. The trouble is, they seem unwilling to do so. And it has become clear that this move is being made out of spite and not out of football efficacy.
We can all understand why Lynch would be loathe to simply release Aiyuk. In addition to the dead cap hit he would take, it would also appear that he is rewarding bad behavior. In the best of all possible worlds, Lynch would find a trade partner. He would not get anything approaching fair market value but he would get something. Anything.
It is now clear that will not happen. Virtually everything both sides have done this offseason have made sure of that. Other teams know San Francisco will be forced to release Aiyuk before the season. Lynch needed to create a trade buzz about his player so that a team other than the Washington Commanders would cough up a day three draft pick. (The Commanders, quarterbacked by Aiyuk’s college friend Jayden Daniels, and in need of receiving help, have always been seen as the place Aiyuk wants to go.)
That hasn’t happened, and it is not going to at this point. So, according Knox and plenty of others around the league, it is simply better to move on. Put the distraction behind you and focus on the future.
The question for Lynch comes down to this. Is there any harm in holding Aiyuk hostage? The player could apply pressure to his team this offseason, but if he does not, what’s the harm?
This is a culture issue. The 49ers have generally had a fine reputation throughout the league. They are smart and they are winners. They pay for quality. Except…
The injuries that have plagued the team in recent seasons have gotten so out of hand that many are questioning whether this goes beyond mere bad luck and is tied to something that the club is doing. And…
Shanahan has been known as a offensive genius, but in its best seasons, San Francisco boasted a top-flight defense. 2026 marks the fourth consecutive season in which the club begins with a new defensive coordinator. What will Raheem Morris and a raft of new coaches bring to the table?
And that offense is getting very old.
Christian McCaffrey will be 30 when the 2026 season begins. George Kittle – 32. Trent Williams turns 38 this summer. Mike Evans, brought in help rebuild a receiver corps that once had Deebo Samuel and Jauan Jennings alongside Aiyuk, will be 33. The other addition at receiver, Christian Kirk, isn’t yet 30 (he’s 29), but he also hasn’t caught more than one touchdown pass since 2023.
Culture is a tricky thing to gauge from the outside. Players choose to sign with teams because of money and personal relationships with coaches and individual teammates more than anything else. But if an opinion begins to form about a general manager allowing vindictiveness to influence football decisions, it is hard to bounce back from.
Holding onto Brandon Aiyuk simply to prevent him from joining Jayden Daniels in Washington doesn’t do anything to help San Francisco. And it might actually be doing genuine damage to a proud franchise that is facing plenty of other challenges this year.
I suppose Seahawks fans don’t much care. They can simply chuckle at this mess as long as it drags out.
Add us as a preferred source on Google