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Brandon Aiyuk's Personal Coach Says 49ers Overpaid for Brock Purdy

Messy.
Grant Cohn|
Dec 17, 2023; Glendale, Arizona, USA; San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy (13) with wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk (11) against the Arizona Cardinals at State Farm Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports
Dec 17, 2023; Glendale, Arizona, USA; San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy (13) with wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk (11) against the Arizona Cardinals at State Farm Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports | Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

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San Francisco 49ers

This is messy.

Brandon Aiyuk's personal wide receiver coach is former NFL wideout T.J. Houshmandzadeh. Those two probably speak to each other frequently. This week, Houshmandzadeh went on Fox Sports 1 this week and was asked about Brock Purdy's five-year, $265 million contract extension.

"I believe they did overpay for Brock Purdy," Houshmandzadeh said. "I would have given Brock Purdy $47 million a year. That would have been the most I'm giving him. We needed you last year. You went 1-6 against playoff teams. We had guys hurt -- Christian McCaffrey was out, Trent Williams was out, Brandon Aiyuk got hurt -- and you couldn't really get it done.

"I think Purdy is a hell of a quarterback, but I'm not giving you money when you've shown me that when we need you to take over, you can't take over. When we need you to carry us, you can't carry us. But at one point, they said Jalen Hurts is overpaid. Now, Jalen Hurts is underpaid because he won a Super Bowl with the Eagles. If Purdy takes the 49ers to the Super Bowl and they win it, then his contract is well worth it. Until he does that, he's overpaid."

I agree with Houshmandzadeh. I've never seen a quarterback get a five-year contract extension after winning six games, throwing 20 touchdown passes and missing the playoffs.

But this isn't about whether I agree with Houshmandzadeh -- it's about whether Aiyuk agrees with him. Is Houshmandzadeh speaking for himself or for Aiyuk as well? Do any other players on the team think Purdy got overpaid?

I imagine his contract is a major topic of conversation in the locker room, and some players might like it more than others.

Messy.

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Grant Cohn
GRANT COHN

Grant Cohn has covered the San Francisco 49ers daily since 2011. He spent the first nine years of his career with the Santa Rosa Press Democrat where he wrote the Inside the 49ers blog and covered famous coaches and athletes such as Jim Harbaugh, Colin Kaepernick and Patrick Willis. In 2012, Inside the 49ers won Sports Blog of the Year from the Peninsula Press Club. In 2020, Cohn joined FanNation and began writing All49ers. In addition, he created a YouTube channel which has become the go-to place on YouTube to consume 49ers content. Cohn's channel typically generates roughly 3.5 million viewers per month, while the 49ers' official YouTube channel generates roughly 1.5 million viewers per month. Cohn live streams almost every day and posts videos hourly during the football season. Cohn is committed to asking the questions that 49ers fans want answered, and providing the most honest and interactive coverage in the country. His loyalty is to the reader and the viewer, not the team or any player or coach. Cohn is a new-age multimedia journalist with an old-school mentality, because his father is Lowell Cohn, the legendary sports columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1979 to 1993. The two have a live podcast every Tuesday. Grant Cohn grew up in Oakland and studied English Literature at UCLA from 2006 to 2010. He currently lives in Oakland with his wife.

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