Bad contracts are a part of the NFL, but when they handcuff your team and prevent other, more necessary moves, they're even worse.
Every team deals with financial regrets, but some have a knack for putting themselves in those positions more than others.
Heading into 2025, Bleacher Report offered the top 10 worst contracts in the league, and the San Francisco 49ers are, unfortunately, represented at No. 7.
Contract Terms: four years, $120 million with $76 million guaranteed
"To be fair, the San Francisco 49ers probably lament this deal more because Aiyuk suffered a significant knee injury months after signing it. His recovery from a torn ACL and MCL could extend well into the 2025 season. Missed time aside, the deal wasn't great for San Francisco," Knox wrote. "The 49ers were pressured into offering it by Aiyuk's offseason holdout and trade request, but there's no getting around the fact that the 49ers overpaid. Desperate to hang onto its playoff-caliber core, San Francisco gave AIyuk a massive four-year deal that still has him as the league's eighth-highest-paid receiver in terms of annual salary. With all due respect to Auyuk, he's not the NFL's eighth-best wideout. He showed that by failing to live up to his contract, when healthy, this past season. Aiyuk had just 374 yards and no touchdowns in seven games.
"Making this deal even worse is the fact that the 49ers don't have a clean out until 2027, when they can eat $21.2 million in dead money to save $20.2 million in cap space.
Maybe the worst part of this contract, in retrospect, is the injury that Knox touched on right after the contract was signed. That's also a part of the game that teams can't predict or get around, but when the two worlds of bad contracts and injuries collide, it makes matters worse.
Just ask the Cleveland Browns. Deshaun Watson's contract is No. 1 on this list.