Brandon Aiyuk's days in the Bay Area might be numbered ... 'cause the NFL star has officially requested a trade from the San Francisco 49ers.
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00:00Welcome back to TMZ Sports, Mike and Mojo.
00:07Mojo, it seems like 49ers star wide receiver Brandon Ayuk has had a change of heart, because
00:14yeah, only a couple of weeks after our very own Jake Munoz from TMZ Sports ran into Brandon
00:22at LAX and asked him where he wanted to play, and we'll see that in just a second here,
00:29Brandon Ayuk has reportedly requested a trade.
00:33Now this has been a conversation that has been going on all off-season.
00:37Brandon is in the fifth and final year on his rookie contract, a contract that I'll
00:43say only here, but only in context with some of the highest paid receivers in the NFL,
00:48guys like Justin Jefferson who are on a $140 million contract, Ayuk playing in the fifth
00:52year of his $14.1 million deal.
00:57He wants to get paid.
00:59Now Mojo, we talked to him again, like I said, a couple of weeks ago at the airport and we
01:03asked him, amidst all the conversation, you know, Brandon, where do you want to be this
01:08upcoming season?
01:09Here's what he said.
01:10What's the feeling?
01:11What's the vibe?
01:12Where are you at?
01:13I don't know.
01:14I'm just vibing, man.
01:15I'm just hanging out.
01:16I wonder.
01:17I just got to know.
01:18You from TMZ?
01:19Yes.
01:20TMZ Sports.
01:21What up, dawg?
01:22Well, I got to know, man.
01:23You want to be in a Niners uniform next year?
01:26Sure.
01:27See, I knew it, man.
01:29So can you tell the fans that are all wigging out, making up all these things, you know,
01:34having all these theories, what was like the meaning when you were rocking the hats?
01:40What hats?
01:41The Steelers hat.
01:42I wasn't wearing a Steelers hat, was I?
01:43Yeah, everyone on the internet, look that up right now.
01:44The whole internet's like, he's wearing the Steelers hat into Levi's Stadium.
01:45Bitch, we're Pirates.
01:46Bitch, we're Pirates.
01:47Pirates just hit me up on IG.
01:48They like, what's up?
01:49What's up?
01:50What's up?
01:51What's up?
01:52What's up?
01:53What's up?
01:54What's up?
01:55What's up?
01:56It's not like that.
01:58No, IG, they like, we seen where pimp the Pirates hat.
02:00We're gonna send you some gear.
02:01Ah, so there's no Pittsburgh connection.
02:03It's not like that.
02:04Everyone can rest easy.
02:05Everybody can rest easy.
02:07I love it, man.
02:08Yeah, on our side, everybody rest easy.
02:10There was, Mojo, and I think 49ers fans, they breathed a sigh of relief when you heard that
02:15Ayuk, and look, he's a potent weapon.
02:19And he's one of the real reasons that offense is as powerful as it is.
02:22I mean, they're pretty impossible to stop.
02:25It doesn't seem like Brandon Iuke is going to be catching balls from Brock Brady this
02:29upcoming season.
02:30It really doesn't
02:31Speaker 3 It would be pretty funny if he ended up catching passes over in Pittsburgh after
02:35that whole conversation.
02:36That would be great.
02:37Russell Wilson.
02:38There you go.
02:39Babcock one, two punch.
02:40Hey man, he just said that he would want to stay in San Francisco.
02:51That doesn't necessarily mean that's where he's going to be or what makes the most sense.
02:57I mean, players often don't play for the teams they want to play for, you know, it's kind
03:02of a, a dream scenario if you can pull that in.
03:05I mean, yeah, I mean probably a lot of players kind of hope that they could stay with one
03:10team their entire career.
03:12You know, the team that took a chance on them that drafted them a little different when
03:16you're talking about a first round pick because anybody would have taken that guy, right?
03:19But players like to commit to one team in a, in a best case scenario.
03:24But as we've seen with even Tom Brady, who had the most Epic run ever in NFL history
03:31with the new England Patriots still finished his career in Tampa Bay elsewhere.
03:35So it is what it is, but we're talking about a young guy, right?
03:39That's on his rookie contract.
03:41He hasn't made lifelong retirement money per se, like, right.
03:46He, if he was smart with his money, he could retire after this and never have to work again
03:51a day in his life.
03:52I mean, granted you hit $14 million best case scenario, maybe he's taking home half of that
03:57after you talk about taxes and agent fees and union fees and all of these other things.
04:03But that not, is not necessarily the cushion you need to feel good for the rest of your
04:08life, right?
04:09So this next contract is extremely important because this is what's going to set him up.
04:17Maybe the next generation after that up for the rest of their lives too.
04:20So he's got to be smart here, man.
04:23And if Sam Fran ain't paying up, you got to go where is, I mean, you got to hope that
04:28they can reach something, right?
04:30He's got a good thing going over with going over there with Sam brand.
04:33They had an awesome year this year.
04:35But Hey, money talks, man.
04:36He's got to do what he's got to do.