Brandon Aiyuk’s hold-in has now bled through training camp and into regular-season preparations.
The San Francisco 49ers practiced Wednesday and Thursday without their All-Pro wide receiver despite expectations from the team that he’d practice without a long-term extension secured.
A prolonged negotiation may have been frustrating for both sides, but it’s going to start getting extremely expensive for Aiyuk.
According to Spotrac, Aiyuk will be subject to a $40,000 fine for each unexcused absence he has from practice. General manager John Lynch told reporters in a press conference Wednesday that team doctors had cleared Aiyuk from the back injury that pushed him out of training camp sessions.
That would seem to indicate any further absence won’t be excused. If that’s the case, he’s up to $80,000 in fines for Wednesday and Thursday.
Things get even more expensive if his hold-in lasts into the regular season. He’s due to forfeit 1/18th of his $14.12 million salary for every game he misses. That equates to $784,666.67 per game.
Doing some quick math, if Aiyuk misses all three practices leading up to Week 1, and then misses Week 1, he will be out $904,666.67 for the week. That number repeats every week the hold-in lasts.
More quick math: that would be more than $15.3 million in fines for Aiyuk if he sits out the entire year. He’d also not accrue a full season and he’d enter next offseason in the same place contractually.
This is where the 49ers believe their leverage lies, so they’ll likely do everything they can to impose the maximum fines to try and get Aiyuk back onto the field.
It’ll be financially expensive for Aiyuk to miss practices and games. It might at the same time cost the 49ers some wins.
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