The San Francisco 49ers might not be playing in next Sunday’s Super Bowl, but that hasn’t stopped Brandon Aiyuk from sharing rather honest thoughts on the matchup.
Said game will feature the Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs (and two Black starting quarterbacks for the first time!). You know, the very same Eagles that defeated Aiyuk’s 49ers 31-7 for the NFC championship for a berth in the Big Game.
Rather than keep his eye on the prize as the 49ers consider their next steps (especially at QB), Aiyuk appeared in a recent podcast with TheSFNiners. The conversation eventually centered around how Aiyuk feels the Eagles — who, again, beat his 49ers handily — will fare against the Chiefs. (Note: Aiyuk had one catch for 10 yards against the Eagles.)
For someone who was sent home for the offseason by Philadelphia, Aiyuk decided to let off some spicy analysis (with a big helping of sore-loser hindsight):
Brandon Aiyuk on the Eagles: “I don’t know fully about that defense. They talk about them being a good defense — I’m not sure. I think this Kansas City pass game will expose what we thought we were going to expose before some unfortunate circumstances. They got extremely lucky.”
— Grant Cohn (@grantcohn) February 5, 2023
Here’s the full context to the #49ers Brandon Aiyuk quote: https://t.co/rFxt1n4nTq pic.twitter.com/w5vyPEAvW7
— 𝙏𝙝𝙚𝙎𝙁𝙉𝙞𝙣𝙚𝙧𝙨 (@TheSFNiners) February 5, 2023
If Aiyuk’s thoughts about how the 49ers were actually better than the Eagles weren’t enough, he also said he’d “bet everything” on the Chiefs in the same interview:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CoSweOzvyDh/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
As someone picking the Chiefs to beat the Eagles in the Super Bowl, I don’t disagree with the general premise Aiyuk presents. I think the Chiefs are better (mainly because of Patrick Mahomes) in an even matchup.
But for Aiyuk to imply that his 49ers were “going to expose” the Eagles’ sixth-ranked defense by DVOA before Brock Purdy got injured is iffy. Never mind that the wideout would ironically put so much money against Philadelphia’s odds for a title quite literally from his couch.
I’m more of the opinion that the seventh-rounder, Purdy, who had the great fortune of playing with a loaded roster against the overmatched Seattle Seahawks and the perennially choking Dallas Cowboys, would’ve been exposed by the Eagles over a full 60 minutes. Instead, Haason Reddick knocked Purdy out of the NFC title proceedings early, and Aiyuk can hang onto a thin strand of hope that things, maybe, would’ve been different.
We’ll see how Aiyuk’s bold (and probably a bit salty) bet on the Chiefs plays out next Sunday.
