At this point, Bradon Aiyuk’s early season issues have been well documented.
Kyle Shanahan was been open about the fact that Aiyuk wasn’t performing at a high enough level in practice to earn chances at the beginning of the season, even though he had such an impressive rookie campaign.
In fact, it was those standout performances in 2020 that led to the issues that began during training camp this season according to Matt Maiocco.
“Aiyuk got very sloppy last season as a rookie, because the 49ers did not have any other receivers,” Maiocco said on KNBR. “So he was still putting up really good numbers, better numbers than he’s putting up now, because the 49ers just didn’t have any other options.
“I think he kind of felt like ‘I’ve got this figured out, what I did last year was good enough,’ and it was never good enough for Shanahan.”
Part of the issue is that Aiyuk was not playing as hard as he could on plays in which he wasn’t getting the ball. The 49ers track the speed of all their players during practice, and can tell who is giving effort and who isn’t. Aiyuk also wasn’t doing a good enough job as a blocker, a pre-requisite for playing receiver in Shanahan’s offense.
It wasn’t just Kyle who noticed there was an issue.
“It wasn’t just one conversation, it wasn’t just two conversations, it was like daily talks they would have. You could hear from Jimmy Garoppolo and other players. They recognized it too. It wasn’t just Kyle Shanahan having some goals that were outrageous, it was everybody could see that Brandon Aiyuk wasn’t doing all the little things you have to do to take the next step.”
Aiyuk has moved past these issues. Over the last seven games, Aiyuk has caught 32 passes for 453 yards and three TDs, including Sunday’s game winner.
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