At the start of 2024, San Francisco fourth-year wideout Brandon Aiyuk was one of the best young talents at his position. His fall from grace since then has been almost unprecedented.
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The only comparably shocking and precipitous fall-off we can remember in the NFL would have to be that of Le’Veon Bell after he sat out a full season. Aiyuk wasn’t quite at Bell’s level in terms of how good he was. But 75 receptions for 1,342 yards and seven scores is no slouch. They were good enough to earn him Second-Team All-Pro honors. But even that small amount of success went to his head.
Aiyuk started demanding a new contract or a trade, and eventually the 49ers regrettably relented and gave the 25-year-old a four-year, $120 million deal the week before the start of the season. Aiyuk was mediocre before tearing up his knee in Week 7 of the 2024 campaign.
He has not played football since, and seems headed for the unemployment line very soon. Aiyuk’s having such a rough time that streamer N3on felt comfortable airing out his dirty laundry recently.
“I’ve had an NFL player, deada** to my face, Brandon Aiyuk, DM and said $100k for a collab,” N3on said on a recent stream. “$100k? Are you f*cking serious? I don’t get what’s up with these NFL players tryna ask for money bro, it’s insane! Let’s just vibe out have fun, come, promote your business, show some love, like, jeez.”
N3on reveals that the San Francisco 49ers NFL player Brandon Aiyuk asked him for $100,000 so they can collab ☠️ pic.twitter.com/AE0gfZp5Z8
— korza ✗ (@korzawyd) February 20, 2026
The idea that people shouldn’t get paid for appearing on someone’s show is a novel one, but not an uncommon one in this day and age of streaming. The number itself was obviously nutty, however. N3on calling out Aiyuk specifically by name with seemingly no worries also says a lot about where the 49ers star stands in the eyes of the media right now.
It’s just a shame he did not learn from Bell’s situation, which was only about 10 years ago. Bell was arguably the best back in football at the time in 2017. And he wanted a silly contract—though from a conservative team in the Pittsburgh Steelers.
He sat out an entire season and in the end was rewarded with a contract from the New York Jets that was smaller than the one he originally turned down from the team that drafted him. Over the next couple of years, Bell’s once promising career was lost in the flames of the Adam Gase era (along with many others).
If Aiyuk is not careful, he could end up going down a similar path. Not to mention that Adam Gase just rejoined the NFL as the L.A. Chargers’ passing game coordinator after six years away from football.
