49ers' Brandon Aiyuk fumbled in a big way by turning down trade to Patriots
The dramatic saga between wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk and the San Francisco 49ers has been ongoing since the team's Super Bowl loss in 2024, but it seems like it could be coming to an end soon.
Reporting in The Athletic suggests the Niners plan on releasing Aiyuk after this season and that they have voided his guaranteed money for 2026 because he was not attending meetings as he rehabs from his major knee injury suffered last season.
As San Francisco was negotiating his contract extension after the 2023 season, his antics led to trade talks with other teams. This line from the article in The Athletic stands out:
"The 49ers negotiated trade scenarios with the Cleveland Browns and New England Patriots, but Aiyuk was reluctant to sign extensions with those teams, effectively ending the chances of a deal."
Brandon Aiyuk did not want to be traded to Patriots
Others have brought up reporting at the time that Aiyuk did not want to go to New England because he was not thrilled about the quarterback situation there. At that time, the Patriots had Jacoby Brissett and rookie Drake Maye as their quarterbacks. New England went 4-13 last year, so Aiyuk can be forgiven for not wanting to enter that situation.
Fast forward just one season, though, and head coach Mike Vrabel has turned the team around as the Patriots are 9-2 and Maye is thought of by some as a MVP candidate.
Aiyuk had no way to foresee that, but the Pats were reportedly willing to give him over $30 million per season. Now he is probably going to be released and will most likely have to sign a one-year deal with a team as he tries to prove he still has it coming off his injury.
While there has been speculation all year about whether Aiyuk would return for the Niners, it seems as of late even players on the roster have accepted the fact that he is not returning.
It is unfortunate on the one hand because Aiyuk was so great in 2023 and we saw how good he can be in head coach Kyle Shanahan's offense, but he off-the-field antics just do not jive with what the Niners are trying to do and what they want to accomplish.
He could have had a sweet situation in New England, but now he is likely going to be a free agent looking for a new home this offseason.
Minnesota Vikings have a major J.J. McCarthy issue, and how Kevin O'Connell handles it could make or break the franchise's future
The 2025 season for the Minnesota Vikings has been a disaster.
Right now, things are at an all-time low, as they sit at 4-7 and have lost three consecutive games, including two in the NFC North. Head coach Kevin O'Connell has the biggest challenge of his Vikings tenure this season: what to do with quarterback J.J. McCarthy?
This season was viewed as one of growth and development for the first-time starter, but the Vikings, as they have in the three prior seasons with O'Connell and general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah, weren't going to punt just to focus on development. They made multiple roster moves this offseason, aiming to win now while developing a quarterback. Turns out that wasn't the case.
Vikings have a conundrum when it comes to J.J. McCarthy
We are now six games into the McCarthy era, and it hasn't looked great. Yes, there was the fourth quarter against the Chicago Bears in Week 1, when he threw two touchdowns and ran another en route to an NFC Offensive Player of the Week award. Sure, he threw a dynamite football to Jalen Nailor to seal a victory over the Detroit Lions. Outside of those two games, there hasn't been a whole lot to be excited about.
That continued on Sunday afternoon, when McCarthy had the worst game of his career. He looked unplayable for the majority of it, throwing for 87 yards and two interceptions, including this ugly one where the ball sailed on him.
No matter how you look at it, McCarthy's been awful. We know his mechanics have been all over the place, and they were wonky in the above clip. The inconsistencies have been the only real constant for McCarthy, and it's not just on the field; it's also the stat sheets. If you want to look at EPA/play, specifically in drop backs, he's not just bad, he's nearly the worst in the last 25 years.
That's a brutal statistic to look at. McCarthy's performance against the Green Bay Packers on Sunday was the third-worst in the league in that category after taking out quick pressures.
Perhaps a chart comparing him to his contemporaries in terms of efficiency, which is particularly important when discussing the baseline of quarterback play, will help emphasize our current position. Well, he's the worst in the league.
It's hard to find a silver lining in McCarthy's game right now. Even so, O'Connell expressed confidence in his ability to win with how he's playing, and much of that likely stems from what he sees in practice every week.
“I think you can. I do believe that,” said O’Connell about winning with this version of McCarthy. “But it does require, as a football team, not doing things that lose games. A special teams turnover, I believe, in two out of our last three games, and then ultimately, the defense is out there battling. They’re trying to get the ball back for us as much as we can. But then there are some things where you can’t have breakdowns around that player to consistently sustain.”
There is something to what O'Connell is saying about having his teammates playing well, and it takes everyone to win a football game. The game felt lost after the botched punt early in the third quarter. You can't give away points, but the offense wasn't exactly lighting the world on fire either.
The other element is how often his receivers are dropping the ball. Going into Week 11, Pro Football Focus charted McCarthy's attempts with a 14.7% drop rate, the highest in the NFL. You can look at this one of two ways: his teammates aren't helping him out, or he's not throwing a very catchable football. It's likely the latter, as Carson Wentz had just a 3.5% drop rate on 166 attempts, which was 26 more than McCarthy had in his five games.
It's also fascinating when you look at things from a surroundings perspective. You can make the argument that no first-year starting quarterback has had better surroundings than McCarthy.
With how McCarthy is playing, you have to start considering alternatives in multiple forms. O'Connell took a serious chance with the offensive approach in this game, focusing on the running game more than he had all season, including a 58% run rate in the first half, and it paid off with 4.7 yards per carry. Even so, McCarthy had his worst game, and there's a non-zero chance that O'Connell could lose the locker room.
“It’s frustrating to be up here and say the same things every single week. You say the same things, expecting for something to change, and we’re still in the same spot," said star wide receiver Justin Jefferson.
At a certain point, it doesn't matter how much you run a play in practice if you can't execute it on Sunday.
“I think it’s more a matter of understanding how important each and every single play is,” said right tackle Brian O'Neill in the locker room. “We can run it 100 times [in practice]. But this week, how does that apply? And then, [it ’s] understanding what might be asked of you on that play, and how it applies to the defense we’re going to get. What is my exact job on that play, and how do I have the best chance for success on that play?”
Right now, the biggest reason for the lack of success on a given play has been McCarthy. Do the Vikings look at the unthinkable and bench him just six games into the season? Considering the backup is UDFA rookie Max Brosmer, who the Vikings are high on, it would send a potentially dangerous message. Even so, not making a change could possibly lose the locker room, and they already felt checked out in the second half of Sunday's game.
One thing to remember about the entire situation are O'Connell's comments from September of 2024 when he appeared on The Rich Eisen Show after McCarthy's meniscus injury.
"I believe that organizations fail young quarterbacks before young quarterbacks fail organizations. And that’s not there’s no specific example in my mind that I could give you of a team or a quarterback just overall 30,000 foot view," said O'Connell.
"It’s important to understand that every one of these guys is on a journey — a very difficult journey — and that they need support and teammates around them. They need the systems in place to ultimately maximize who they are and what their potential is, because you’re still drafting players rich off of potential. And then everything that happens from that moment to when that potential becomes is really on the organization."
Here's where things get confusing. The systems and support are in place for McCarthy, but it's not working. How much longer can O'Connell keep going with McCarthy, considering how good and stable things are in the organization? With such stability, would moving on from McCarthy be failing him, or would it be a Josh Rosen-type admission that he isn't the guy they thought he could be?
If O'Connell chooses to move on, would he be allowed to choose another quarterback? It's something that plenty of coaches don't get a chance to do, but this is a unique situation. O'Connell brought out the best in Kirk Cousins, Josh Dobbs, Nick Mullens, and revitalized Sam Darnold. If there was ever a coach to survive a situation like this, it would be O'Connell. Anything he chooses to do needs to work, not just for the team and the fanbase, but also for his job security.
The future of the Minnesota Vikings is far from certain across the board. Whatever O'Connell ends up doing, which I believe will be starting McCarthy for the rest of the season, will be widely discussed and criticized across the league. Clarity will come sooner rather than later, and we will learn a lot about this organization in the process.
