Is 49ers' Brandon Aiyuk getting separation? Yes, but it's complicated

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Has Brandon Aiyuk been getting open like he did last season?

Yes, say San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan, Aiyuk and the analytics. In fact, one metric, which measures how much separation a receiver gets on his defenders, puts Aiyuk atop of the NFL heap with the Houston Texans’ Nico Collins coming in second.

Top Separation Win Rates of the 2024 Season
+ per @FantasyPtsData

1. Brandon Aiyuk, Week 3 (46.9%)*
2. Nico Collins, Week 1 (43.8%)
3. Mike Evans, Week 2 (43.5%)
4. Jameson Williams, Week 1 (42.9%)
5. CeeDee Lamb, Week 1 (42.9%)

*lol, he’s gonna be fine guys

— Scott Barrett (@ScottBarrettDFB) September 24, 2024

Collins leads the league with 338 yards. Aiyuk? He’s tied for 65th place with 119 yards and he has yet to score a touchdown this season.

Why the discrepancy?

For one, opponents have used a lot of zone defense against the 49ers so far, which gives receivers room to roam — hence the separation statistic — but not a lot of clear throwing lanes.

“Usually when it’s zone there’s not many people around the guys, there’s just people underneath,” Shanahan said. “It’s about throwing over people.”

Aiyuk, meanwhile, said that defenses are playing him differently than they did last season when he led the 49ers with 1,342 receiving yards.

“A little bit different,” he said. “They just know what we want to do, what we like to do, me and (Brock) Purdy especially.”

He indicated that the 49ers would try different tactics this week.

“Try to be in different spots, give them different looks,” he said. “Yeah, we’re working through that today.”

No one was expecting Aiyuk to get off to a blazing start in 2024 after he missed all of the spring and summer practices due to a contract dispute. After a Week 1 game in which he had two catches for 28 yards and couldn’t hold onto a diving attempt in the end zone,  he admitted he didn’t feel quite right and even dreaded watching the tape of that game.

He probably had company in that regard.

Two other high-profile receivers sat out training camp this summer — the Dallas Cowboys’ CeeDee Lamb and the Cincinnati Bengals’ Ja’Marr Chase — and neither had gaudy Week 1 outings, either.

Of course, it takes only one game to get back on track.

Chase, for example, had middling numbers over his first two games, perhaps because of his hold-in and perhaps because, with fellow receiver Tee Higgins out with a hamstring strain, defenses could focus on stopping him. With Higgins back in the lineup for Week 3, and with the Bengals facing a porous Washington Commanders defense, Chase had 118 yards and both of his touchdowns.

Aiyuk, meanwhile, nearly had his biggest moment of the season in Los Angeles on Sunday.

With a little more than 4 minutes remaining, he broke open down the field after noticing the Los Angeles Rams had botched a coverage. Purdy, however, didn’t realize the Rams’ mistake and instead threw in a short pass to Jauan Jennings on the other side of the field.

Hitting Aiyuk might have led to a 52-yard touchdown — he was wide open with no safety over the top — that probably would have iced the game. It also would have left Aiyuk with at least 89 receiving yards and his first touchdown of the season, and it certainly would have marked the end to his slow start to the season.

“That’s something that happens in football a lot,” Shanahan said of the busted coverage. “It happens throughout the games and that was a big one, because it happened at the end, but we just didn’t fall into it the right way.”

He added: “I think Brock’s done a really good job of finding those guys. He didn’t find him there.”

Odds and ends

• Purdy (back) was full go in Wednesday’s practice while tight end George Kittle (hamstring) was a limited participant. Kittle missed two practices last week and was held out of the Rams game while Purdy emerged from the game with a sore back.

Missing from practice: tackle Trent Williams (illness), receiver Deebo Samuel Sr. (calf), linebacker Dee Winters (ankle) and defensive tackle Javon Hargrave (triceps).

• The 49ers will be facing a different kind of running back this week, Rhamondre Stevenson, who stands a little under 6-foot tall but who weighs nearly 230 pounds. Stevenson ranks 11th in the NFL with 224 rushing yards.

“A power back,” linebacker Fred Warner said. “There’s really not a whole lot left of them in this league. But he’s as true of a power back as there is — the big body, the way that he runs the football. … So we’re going to have to bring our pads this week for sure.”

• Aiyuk said the 49ers came close to pulling off a miracle win in the final seconds after a series of laterals left the Rams with only one defender on the left side of the field. Center Jake Brendel’s final lateral to Aiyuk, however, hit the ground and went out of bounds.

“Especially after watching the tape,” Aiyuk said of how surprised he was at nearly breaking free. “We had a chance.”

• The 49ers added defensive tackle Shakel Brown, who spent training camp with them, to the practice squad. The team will have two open spots on their 53-man roster when Hargrave goes on injured reserve. Shanahan indicated that one of their practice squad defensive tackles — Brown, T.Y. McGill and rookie Evan Anderson — will be bumped up for Sunday’s game based on who looks good in practice this week.

How will the 49ers fill Javon Hargrave’s roster spot? It seems like it’s a competition among practice squadders T,Y. McGill (96), Evan Anderson (69) and Shakel Brown (60) pic.twitter.com/YusEkXDL8V

— Matt Barrows (@mattbarrows) September 25, 2024

(Photo: Jevone Moore / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)