49ers Should Hold Out Brandon Aiyuk Against the Giants

Brandon Aiyuk suffered a shoulder injury early in the last game against the Rams.

The pain he was in was evident on several occasions throughout the game. Aiyuk would either be slow to get up, be kept on the sideline, or was visibly in pain with a grimace. And yet, he still finished the game until the very end. Given how much of a battle it was, Aiyuk leaving the game was not going to happen, especially against a division opponent.

However, the next game for the 49ers is not against a division opponent and will definitely not be a battle. San Francisco plays host to the Giants in Week 3 on Thursday Night Football. This has a 49ers win written all over it with very little thought. Because of how easy of an opponent they're facing and the short turnaround, the 49ers should hold Aiyuk out against the Giants.

As of now, he is a game time decision, so I would suspect the 49ers see how he does in pregame warmups. Pain tolerance seems to be the common theme here, which bodes well that he isn't dealing with too serious of an injury. Nevertheless, trotting Aiyuk out there against a team the 49ers will have no issues in handling is reckless. They need to be thinking about long term preservation with Aiyuk. The last thing they want is for him to land harshly on his shoulder again and make it worse in a game they don't need him for.

With that said, I expect the 49ers to play him in a limited capacity. It's the wrong move, but the way the players and coaches view these games, they are going to want all hands on deck to beat the Giants. Not to mention that Aiyuk is in a contract year. He's not going to want to miss a single game if he doesn't have to. So, I'm sure he wants to play to prove his toughness and that he can ball out while dealing with an injury. My pushback to that is Aiyuk has absolutely nothing to prove and it shouldn't come at the risk of making his injury worse.

We'll see soon if he ends up being inactive or not.