The San Francisco 49ers have had an eventful offseason, and a lot of that comes down to the Brandon Aiyuk saga. Seemingly every week, the star receiver is in the news for a new post about leaving the 49ers for the Washington Commanders.

At this point, it's clear as day that the 49ers are going to move on from Aiyuk at some point. A trade is becoming more and more unlikely as Aiyuk has killed all of his trade value and has made it known that Washington is where he wants to be.

Some fans and pundits are zagging in this drama and taking Aiyuk's side, thinking that the 49ers must have done something wrong to make him behave like this. On Wednesday, former San Francisco cornerback Richard Sherman made it clear that he isn't buying that.

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“They didn't (disrespect him),” Sherman said on The Richard Sherman Podcast. “They paid him $30 million to catch the football. They paid him $30 million to show up and play receiver for the San Francisco 49ers. Not be owned, not be anything. Good and services. You get paid for your services. You have to provide the services. You don't get to get paid and say ‘I'm not gonna play receiver, I'm gonna do whatever I want.'”

Of course, any team that wants to acquire Aiyuk has more to worry about than just his off-field issues. He is coming off of a serious knee injury that he suffered during the 2024 season that kept him out through all of the 2025 campaign. While the 49ers continued to tease his return last season, he never even rejoined the team.

Sherman also pointed out that Aiyuk was refusing to rehab with the 49ers, which is allowed, but he also did not return to the team for them to evaluate how his rehab was going and his guarantees were voided as a result.

These are all red flags surrounding Aiyuk's situation, and where he lands will be something to monitor through the rest of the offseason. But Sherman has made it clear that this saga is all on him.