Brandon Aiyuk appears to imply 49ers 'scared' to release him

In a video posted to his Instagram account Sunday afternoon, San Francisco 49ers receiver Brandon Aiyuk spoke for about a minute and a half, seemingly offering his first public comments about his current situation with the team.

Paired with a caption that reads "If you scared just say dat," Aiyuk spent most of the 91 seconds of the video describing an unspecified entity as "little boys" and "female dogs" who are afraid. Aiyuk never explicitly mentions the 49ers by name, but a logical interpretation of the video is that he believes the team is afraid to release him because he could land elsewhere and eventually make it regret letting him go.

Aiyuk starts the video by comparing who he is "dealing with" to kids who don't get picked for a basketball game, so they take their ball and go home. He then went on to say that someone -- presumably the Niners -- are afraid of how he could come back to haunt them if he plays football elsewhere.

"Stop running from the bill," Aiyuk said. "The bill coming. You scared. They scared. Truth is, they scared. They know how I get. They gonna say, 'Oh yeah, BA, BA, BA did this. BA did that. BA did, you know, that s---, allegedly. Allegedly. But what they not gonna say is 'BA suck at football,' cause they know how I get. And they running from that bill that's on the way. It's inevitable. It's coming. Stop running. Stop being a female dog. Stop being a little cat. Stop running from that bill."

Aiyuk's video is the first time he has seemingly spoken publicly about his ongoing standoff with the Niners.

San Francisco and Aiyuk have been at odds in some capacity for nearly a year with the situation escalating last July when the 49ers voided the remaining guaranteed money in his contract because he did not participate in rehab sessions for the torn ACL, MCL and meniscus in his right knee.

The Niners then placed Aiyuk on the reserve/left team list in December after Aiyuk stopped showing up at the team facility altogether. General manager John Lynch said in January that Aiyuk had played his last snap with the team, though the 49ers have been hesitant to release Aiyuk because they hoped to find a trade partner for him.

As the offseason has gone on, no such trade has materialized, and the Niners have continued to hold on to Aiyuk in part because coach Kyle Shanahan said they're "not trying to hook up any other team as fast as you possibly can."

The expectation around the 49ers and the league has been and remains that Aiyuk's preference is to join the Washington Commanders. Washington quarterback Jayden Daniels is a close friend of Aiyuk's from their shared time at Arizona State.

In Aiyuk's other recent social media activity, that preference has been heavily implied. As of Monday afternoon, Aiyuk was following just five accounts on Instagram: his wife, Adidas, his personal brand, the Commanders and Daniels. On Saturday, he also posted photos of himself wearing a Commanders hat.

All of that comes on the heels of the June 3 news that the Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office issued a warrant for Aiyuk's arrest on a misdemeanor charge of exhibition of speeding.

That warrant is in reference to a video Aiyuk posted to YouTube in December in which he appeared to record himself from the driver's seat going well over the posted 40 mph speed limit on a road that runs past Levi's Stadium.

Although Aiyuk apologized a few days after initially posting that video, he again responded using Instagram after news of the warrant broke. In that post, Aiyuk offered video of himself driving a car at a racetrack, noting in the caption that he has some people "in they feelings."

Now that June 1 has passed, the Niners are free to trade or release Aiyuk with the remainder of the dead money owed to him split up over the next two years rather than just 2026.

But the 49ers have no hard deadline to release Aiyuk because he remains on the reserve/left squad list. Because of that designation, he is not being paid and does not count against their 90-man roster. If Aiyuk does not report when the Niners open training camp in late July, he would revert to the reserve/did not report list, which could also trigger fines of up to $50,000 per day.

All of which means the simplest means of resolving the situation would be for Aiyuk to show up to the facility, pass a physical and force San Francisco to make a move.br/]