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PFF Ranks 49ers WR Brandon Aiyuk 19th Among NFL Wide Receivers

With all due respect to PFF, this is a lofty projection for Aiyuk.
Grant Cohn|
Sep 9, 2024; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk (11) runs after a catch against New York Jets cornerback Michael Carter II (left) during the fourth quarter at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images
Sep 9, 2024; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk (11) runs after a catch against New York Jets cornerback Michael Carter II (left) during the fourth quarter at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images | Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images

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San Francisco 49ers

In 2023, Brandon Aiyuk was the second-highest-graded wide receiver in the NFL according to Pro Football Focus. They considered him elite.

Then in 2024, he signed a massive extension worth an average of $30 million per season, and his performance instantly suffered. He was PFF's 52nd-highest-graded wide receiver, and he played only seven games because he tore his ACL, MCL and meniscus.

So who will Aiyuk be this year -- the elite wide receiver he was in 2023, or the slightly above average receiver we saw in 2024 before he got injured?

Pro Football Focus projects Aiyuk to be somewhere in between this year. That's why they rank him 19th among NFL wide receivers.

"Aiyuk was one of the NFL’s top receivers in 2023, finishing with a 92.3 receiving grade and an outstanding 18.0 yards per reception as one of the league’s premier deep threats," writes PFF's Trevor Sikkema. "However, his efficiency and production dipped in 2024, and he now enters the upcoming season fresh off ACL and MCL tears."

With all due respect to PFF, this is a lofty projection for Aiyuk.

He's not going to have OTAs, minicamp or training camp. He probably won't play in the first month or two of the season. So when he finally returns, he won't be nearly the best version of himself. If he ever makes a full recovery, he almost certainly won't do so until 2026.

In addition, 2023 was a bit of an outlier for him. That season, he averaged a whopping 17.9 yards per catch. Last season, he averaged 15.0 yards per catch, which was the second-highest of his career. He's not a burner -- he's an excellent route runner, or he was before he injured his knee.

Jauan Jenning should be on this list instead of Aiyuk.

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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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