When unusual situations arise in the NFL, it becomes a play-by-play exercise to determine the specific rules that apply. And few situations have been more unusual than 49ers receiver Brandon Aiyuk’s odyssey over the past year.
He is back with the 49ers, at a $13.75 million salary for the rest of the season. This fact led the 49ers to release him on Tuesday at 4 p.m. ET, in order to avoid owing him one-ninth of the total amount ($1.52 million) for Week 10.
But this is where another obscure problem applies. Under Article 20, Section 4 of the collective bargaining agreement, the 49ers owe Aiyuk nothing during his two-week waiver.
Excerpt from the relevant provision: “If a club obtains a roster exemption for a contracted player who fails to report to its club at least five days before the last day of pre-season training camp as defined in Article 23, Section 10, the player will not be entitled to pre-season or regular season compensation until such exemption is removed, provided that the player receives written notice of this fact upon reporting to the club. such notice is not given to the player, the player must receive his salary from paragraph 5 during his exemption.
So if the 49ers informed Aiyuk in writing that he won’t be paid during the two-week roster exemption (and they surely did), they don’t have to pay him. Which pushes their deadline to avoid owing him a game check until Tuesday, November 24 – one day after the exemption expires.
Why not just cut it? The 49ers are delaying the trade because they can, delaying his move on waivers and, given his salary, inevitable free agency by up to two weeks.
In the meantime, he’s part of the team. But Aiyuk will not show up for work on Wednesday. He has been excused, we are told, from team activities and is training alone.
The 49ers could release him at any time. There’s no reason not to, except to hinder his ability to join another team.
The circumstances contradict the idea that he would have been reinstated by the league contingent on any type of agreement with the 49ers. Had that happened, the deal surely would have included a requirement that the 49ers fire him quickly.
Which means that the NFL, after apparently working with the 49ers to delay Aiyuk’s reinstatement in order to help the 49ers recoup Aiyuk’s bonus money, ultimately decided that the reserve/left roster’s reinstatement could not be delayed in order to advance a team’s strategic goals.
So yes, Aiyuk will eventually be released. He wasn’t released today because the 49ers don’t owe him a game check for Week 10 or Week 11. Eventually, when the roster exemption expires, they will cut him.
For now, the team’s delay in making the inevitable points is due to a desire to prevent another team from grabbing it, to stick with Aiyuk, or one of both. It’s insignificant, but the 49ers have the power to do it.
Gn sports
