SANTA CLARA — After a lackluster and rusty performance against the Jets in Week 1, Niners wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk said he was afraid to watch the tape.
He had no such problem after the 49ers’ Week 2 loss to the Vikings.
The stat sheet wasn’t much better. The newly minted $120 million man had 43 yards in Minnesota. He had 28 against the Jets in the season opener. Obviously, there was no shortage of knee-jerk criticism of Aiyuk from fans and media alike after the 23-17 loss.
One stat, in particular, made the rounds on social media from the moment the game ended:
Average separation: 1.9 yards.
But Aiyuk knew the tape would align with his feelings on the game. And he knew that an average separation score has a fitting acronym. The metric only considers the distance between a receiver and the closest defender on passes thrown that receiver’s way.
Now, no one, not even Aiyuk, would proclaim he had a great game against the Vikings.
But he was open a lot. You can see it on the tape.
It’s not his fault the Niners’ woeful offensive line left quarterback Brock Purdy rushed and missing open receivers like Aiyuk, forcing the ball into tight windows across the field.
And don’t just take my word for it. Here was Kyle Shanahan on Monday:
“There were a number of times he had a real good chance to get the ball, and a couple of times protections broke down,” Shanahan said. “There are 11 guys out there involved in getting someone the ball.”
But this week, it’s all about No. 11.
And any sort of dilution of responsibility — fair as it might be for a wide receiver — won’t fly.
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Deebo Samuel is out with a calf injury, likely to miss at least two weeks. Christian McCaffrey is on injured reserve with the same ailment — he’s out until October at the earliest. Aiyuk might be paid like a No. 1, first-team-All-Pro receiver, but anyone who knows the Niners knows that Samuel and McCaffrey are the top options in the San Francisco passing offense.
This week, it’s Aiyuk. He pushed the Niners to pay him the kind of money that tells the world he’s the man.
Be careful what you wish for — Aiyuk is most certainly “the man” this week and beyond.
Yes, Aiyuk needed to round into form during the season’s first two weeks. Fair enough, even if it was a problem of his own creation.
“I felt like I was coming back alive,” Aiyuk said of his Week 2 performance, calling the most significant week-to-week difference “the feeling… It’s hard to explain.”
He better be at full speed Sunday against the Rams.
The offense might not have been focused on feeding him the ball in Weeks 1 and 2, likely a byproduct of the Niners practicing without him for six weeks during training camp.
That’ll change with Samuel, in particular, out of the lineup.
And there will be no excuse for not carving up the Rams’ defense, which allowed Arizona’s rookie X-receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. to go for 130 yards and two touchdowns on four catches this past Sunday. The once-great cornerback Tre-Davious White should not be able to stop Aiyuk.
Will Aiyuk stop himself?
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Aiyuk stayed away from training camp because he believed the 49ers should pay him commensurate to the player he expects to become.
The Niners finally relented, making Aiyuk the sixth highest-paid receiver in the NFL — a player paid as much as Tyreek Hill and more than Davante Adams, Cooper Kupp, or Samuel.
There is every reason to believe Aiyuk, 26, can reach that level; that he can become a you-can’t-stop-me-even-if-you-try receiver.
But he has not been that yet.
He has the money he wanted. He has the attention now, too.
Anything less than an elite-level performance in Los Angeles will not do.
All eyes are on Aiyuk, again.
And come Sunday night, we shouldn’t need to watch the All-22 tape to know he shined.