RP Clips: San Francisco 49ers Breakdown

**James Koh** (0:00)
This is Reception Perception The Show.

**Tim Kawakami** (0:03)
Now, James Koh and Matt Harmon.

**James Koh** (0:06)
We've got Tim Kawakami, columnist over at the SF Standard, a long time NFL and 49ers beat reporter. Go find his podcast, The TK Show, on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcast. Tim, we appreciate you joining us.

**Tim Kawakami** (0:22)
You got it, good to be with you.

**James Koh** (0:23)
Well, we gotta talk 49ers here. There's a lot going on there in the Bay Area. What in the world? What is going on with the 49ers and Brandon Ayu? Can you give us the latest there?

**Tim Kawakami** (0:34)
It is funny to hear from people who are like, what, like you can maybe checking in none of them, not us who are like, have dealt with this for a couple years now.

**James Koh** (0:42)
Yeah.

**Tim Kawakami** (0:42)
It's the same thing. It's the same. There's no, there's really nothing new other than both sides are being incredibly stubborn. It's just a bad breakup where, you know, if one side thinks the other one wants to get it over with quicker, then they're going to delay. Then the other side, oh, you think you want to get it over with quicker? I'm going to delay too. It's such a simple way to conclude this, is Brandon IU to show up to a 49er or something and say, OK, I'm here. And now you can cut me. Because until he does that, the 49ers, it does not count on their cap. He does not count as a roster spot. They can keep doing this. It's actually it's gotten pretty petty on both sides. But it's the same thing. The 49ers said it, right? John Lynch said it. He's not going to play another snap for the 49ers. He is not going to. None of this is any involvement on his future of the 49ers. It's just a matter when the past really officially starts. I thought it would be with the draft. When they realized they couldn't get any kind of draft pick for him in the trade. Then I thought it might be right before OTAs when they just wouldn't want him to show up. It's going to continue. I imagine it'll be at some point before training camp or right at the start of training camp. Who knows?
It's a bad break up.
I keep saying neither one of them could really quit each other because he really could end it. Either one of them could end this. But they both just want to spite each other to keep going as long as possible. It's silly, but this relationship got silly a long time ago, and it's just continue to spin out. We're just watching. Again, if you cover the 49ers every day, he was an ex-49er in everything but name like last July.
But there's no, I guess, 49ers are saying we can just keep them and it's not counting against our cap. So why don't we just keep them? Let's make sure he doesn't get an easy walk right over to Washington. That's what I believe and I've reported this. I think they suspect there was some influence from Washington or Jaden Daniels or somebody over there to get. Are you believing that he didn't need the 49ers anymore? I don't think they're really thrilled with that. So if it delays what Washington can do with them, he can't get in their off season program. Who knows?
Who knows with him? I don't know what he's doing. But it just messes with him a little bit. It messes with Washington. And then Ayuk is thinking of messing with the 49ers because they have to deal with these questions. He's terminally online.
He just is clear. He's fascinated by the attention he gets by these cryptic comments. We're talking about him and nothing happens. But people still talk about him like he's this great player, which he hasn't been mostly due to injuries, but also due to some of this since 2023 He certainly wasn't a great player in 2024 before he got hurt. Then he got hurt and didn't play all 2025 We're still talking about him. Why? It's because this stuff keeps going.

**James Koh** (3:45)
I think it's because we're hanging on to the memory of an unbelievable 2023

**Tim Kawakami** (3:49)
Yes, he was really good. He was really good.

**James Koh** (3:51)
He was crazy good. And again, anytime you're talking about a player at the wide receiver position, playing for the 49ers, man, I mean, it's one of the marquee franchises of the NFL. That is for sure. Why he doesn't just, again, show up and get caught immediately, it's only hurting him. Trying to get into the mind of Brandon Iuke is probably a lost cause, but I don't get it. If you show up, you get caught, you move on, you get to go play football in Washington, which everyone is reporting. So it's like, okay, great.