AP Listing/Duane Burleson
San Francisco 49ers huge receiver Brandon Aiyuk led the group in receptions, receiving yards and receiving touchdowns ideal season, but he used to be held with out a target en path to taking half in proper 47 percent of the snaps in his group’s 41-33 take over the Detroit Lions ideal Sunday, per Pro Soccer Reference.
On Friday, 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan acknowledged that Aiyuk is now not within the “doghouse” no matter the 2d-12 months wideout’s lack of action, per KNBR’s Brian Murphy:
Brian Murphy @knbrmurph
Kyle on Aiyuk: “No, it be now not a doghouse. He would’ve obtained his build fully support; tweaked his hamstring earlier than third preseason game. Deliberate on rotating him; we did. and likewise you uncover a colossal response to that; Or now not it’s now not personal…things are an even bigger deal b/c of memoir football (laughs)”
Aiyuk gathered 60 catches, 748 yards and 5 receiving touchdowns in 12 games ideal 12 months. He furthermore added 77 dashing yards and two extra ratings.
On Sunday, Deebo Samuel used to be San Francisco’s certain No. 1 wideout, catching 9 passes (12 targets) for 181 yards and a touchdown.
Surprisingly, it used to be Trent Sherfield who noticed the 2d-most snaps at the space. Per Pro Soccer Reference, he used to be on the subject 49 percent of the time. Aiyuk used to be third, after which Mohamed Sanu (36 percent) and Jauan Jennings (11 percent) rounded out the wideout neighborhood.
Sherfield and Sanu didn’t inspect many alternatives themselves with their four mixed targets, although the old wideout changed into his three targets into two catches for 23 yards and a ranking.
Sherfield’s ascendance has reach in portion because Aiyuk dealt with a preseason injury that rate him some dispute time, as David Lombardi of The Athletic approved:
David Lombardi @LombardiHimself
Shanahan: “I’m overjoyed with Aiyuk.”
He repeated what’s been evident: Aiyuk’s hamstring injury has ended in inconsistent dispute time and some inconsistencies in play.
As Aiyuk notches extra healthy dispute time, he’ll inspect an even bigger portion of game plans. 49ers overjoyed to maintain Sherfield
In a roundabout scheme, the 49ers relied intently on Aiyuk ideal 12 months for the length of his 12 games in uniform, and it might per chance perchance per chance presumably be horrible to search an about face after Shanahan utilized him so incessantly as a rookie.
Aiyuk might per chance also honest maintain gotten off to a leisurely birth that no doubt noticed him destroy up snaps with Sherfield, but what transpired ideal Sunday need to now not be the norm essentially based fully fully on Shanahan’s comments.