49ers legend sounds off on Brandon Aiyuk contract saga

If you think you are tired of the standoff between Brandon Aiyuk and the San Francisco 49ers, you've got nothing on one of the team's Hall of Fame quarterbacks.

Steve Young, who was under center the last time the Red and Gold won a Super Bowl, took to the Bay Area airwaves for his first weekly appearance of the 2024 NFL season to let KNBR 680 listeners know he's over the whole ordeal — and he didn't hold back.

"Brandon, because of his youth and because he’s not going to set the market yet wants to set the market, says ‘I want to be traded’ and then goes through this," Young said, clearly exasperated. "But it was like, bro if you want to tear up the contract and do something big, then you might want to go the fifth year and go prove it out to make sure that everybody is on board with you setting the market. Or, if you’re going to ask to be traded, then when they make a trade that works for them, you gotta say you’re up for it."

Young then explained his last point.

"You don’t say, 'Oh no, that doesn’t work for me.' Because then it was like, 'Well, what do you want?'"

One of the biggest points of contention for Young is that the ordeal is playing out at a time when San Francisco's NFC rivals are improving, taking the focus off of getting back to the Super Bowl.

"It's not like [these] are broken relationships, but it's stressed," Young said. "It's strained."

Aiyuk has yet to practice or play with the Niners this summer as he continues to push for an extension on his rookie contract.  The 24-year-old requested a trade earlier in the offseason when a new contract wasn't presented to him, but nothing has come to fruition on that front, either, as both sides have rejected potential trade partners.

The 49ers open up the 2024 season against Aaron Rodgers and the New York Jets on Monday, Sept. 9.