The 49ers won’t be holding a mandatory minicamp this offseason.
The team was scheduled to hold that minicamp on June 9 and 10, but a team official told Matt Maiocco of NBC Sports Bay Area that head coach Kyle Shanahan has called it off. The team’s 100 percent attendance at this week’s voluntary work was cited as the reason for the decision.
One more OTA session is scheduled for Thursday and that now stands as the last day of offseason work for the Niners before they get back together for training camp this summer.
The 49ers haven’t announced their schedule for camp yet, but they’ll have a little more time to sort out those details with no other work on the calendar for next week.
Six months ago, 49ers wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk posted video of himself driving more than 100 mph in a 40 mph zone. Now Aiyuk is facing misdemeanor charges for the incident.
An arrest warrant has been issued for Aiyuk on a misdemeanor charge of exhibition of speed, the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office told the California Post.
The video that Aiyuk posted to his YouTube channel showed him driving 104 mph past Levi’s Stadium, where the 49ers play their home games. Aiyuk later apologized for the video.
Aiyuk’s career has declined rapidly since he tore his ACL in Week Seven of the 2024 season. Aiyuk hasn’t played a single snap since then, and the 49ers voided the guaranteed money remaining on his contract, saying he refused to rehab at the team facility.
Although Aiyuk is still on the 49ers’ roster, he is highly unlikely to play for the 49ers again. General Manager John Lynch has said that the team wants to trade Aiyuk. If no team wants to trade for him, he’ll likely be released.
Chris Godwin has spent nine seasons in the NFL, all of them with Mike Evans as his teammate. When Evans decided to leave in free agency for the 49ers, Godwin didn’t accept it.
“Honestly, I didn’t believe it,” Godwin told reporters on Tuesday, via Jenna Laine of ESPN. “I mean, there’s a bunch of stuff on the Internet that you can’t really believe, a lot of AI stuff. So I didn’t really believe it. And then I texted [quarterback Baker Mayfield]. I was like, ‘Yo, is this for real?’ And he was like, ‘Sad face [emoji].’”
Evans and Godwin are first and second in franchise history for catches, receiving yards, and receiving touchdowns. Now, Evans is gone.
“I think it’s part of the game, unfortunately,” Godwin said. “Mike is -- I mean, we all know what Mike has been to this community and this organization. That’s my brother and I wish him the best and his time in San Fran. I’m sure that they know what kind of player that they’re getting.
“I mean, obviously it’s going to be difficult that he’s not here. And I think anytime you’re missing Mike, that’s a tough situation. But fortunately we have a room full of guys that are ready to go.”
Evans, a first-round pick in 2014, left Tampa Bay with credentials that may already be good enough to get him into the Hall of Fame. In San Francisco, Evans gets an opportunity to win his second career Super Bowl.
Assuming the 49ers can compete with the Seahawks, who won Super Bowl LX, and the Rams, who are loading the cannon for a Super Bowl run of their own.
The 49ers signed safety Ashtyn Davis to a one-year deal, the team announced Tuesday.
In a corresponding move, the 49ers waived running back Jermar Jefferson.
Davis spent last season with the Dolphins, appearing in 15 games with 12 starts. He recorded 63 tackles, four passes defensed, one interception, one forced fumble and added two special teams tackles.
He entered the NFL as a third-round pick of the Jets in 2020 and spent five seasons in New York.
In his career, Davis has appeared in 84 games with 34 starts. He has totaled 217 tackles, 19 passes defensed, nine interceptions, five forced fumbles, four fumble recoveries and half a sack to go with 23 special teams tackles.
Jefferson signed with the 49ers on May 28.
They have to install playing surfaces that meet exacting standards. They have to change the names of the facilities. They have to shut down all other business (such as major concerts) for the duration of the World Cup.
Given the hoops through which the 11 NFL stadiums will have to jump in order to placate FIFA, it’s fair to ask whether it’s worth it.
Ben Volin of the Boston Globe recently took a look at that question. Said an NFL official from a team that won’t be hosting any of the World Cup games, “I know more than a few teams weren’t disappointed to lose the bid.”
That could be sour grapes, because those who won the right to host the matches are crowing about it.
“Can’t sleep,” Cowboys owner and G.M. Jerry Jones said recently, per Volin. “This is a great chance to associate with the worldwide love with soccer, and lets us put a little notch on our belt and share it with what soccer’s about, too. They’ll never be able to take away that we held those games in that stadium.”
Cowboys executive Stephen Jones echoed the sentiment: “We’ll be shut down all summer. But it’s worth it. I mean, this is about brand and, you know, being a part of something special.”
The Joneses wanted to host the matches badly enough to give up their suite for the matches.
“I think I’ve got to go someplace else, but that was a part of it,” Jerry Jones said. “We did a lot of things to make this work.”
The Cowboys, Patriots, Falcons, Texans, Chargers/Rams, Giants/Jets, Chiefs, Seahawks, 49ers, Dolphins, and Eagles will be hosting World Cup games in their stadiums.
The total revenue is projected, per Volin, to be roughly $11 billion. FIFA will pay rent for the stadiums, while keeping the revenue from sponsorships, tickets, suites, merchandise, concessions, and parking.
So how much will the teams get for hosting the World Cup? Per Volin, the terms “have been kept under wraps.”
Given that folks like Jones are not known for doing bad deals, they’ll surely be making more money to host the World Cup matches than they would have made in a normal summer.
Still, it’s a headache. Extra work, extra expenses, extra hassles.
Not to mention the P.R. bruise that comes from the perception/reality that NFL owners who are giving FIFA the surfaces it demands while stubbornly refusing to do the same for pro football players.
