SANTA CLARA -- Everything is clicking for Brandon Aiyuk.
Coming off his first 1,000-yard receiving season in 2022, the 49ers wideout dealt a warning to the team's defense ahead of training camp and backed up those words Wednesday with his performance on Day 1 of practice.
Aiyuk provided hundreds of fans gathered in Santa Clara with the highlight of the day -- a leaping grab over cornerback Deommodore Lenoir on a contested catch. The 25-year-old has gone from coach Kyle Shanahan's doghouse to top dog on the field, and his teammate Deebo Samuel is in awe of the transformation.
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"It’s crazy because I’m with him every day. He’s my guy," Samuel said after practice Wednesday. "From Year 1 to now, his confidence level is through the roof. He walks in, he walks out every day like no one can guard him. And you walk around with that type of attitude, you take that out there to the field, I mean, it can only translate.
"He’s taken his game to another level, and it’s very exciting to see."
Aiyuk is poised for a big 2023 NFL season after what Shanahan described Wednesday as the wideout's "best year" in 2022, when he broke out for 1,015 yards receiving on 78 catches with eight touchdowns and led the 49ers in nearly every offensive category. It has been a long road for the receiver, who was selected by the 49ers in the first round of the 2020 NFL Draft and at first struggled with consistency.
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On Wednesday, Shanahan explained how the coronavirus pandemic, injuries during that first year and two seasons at a junior college had Aiyuk playing catchup at the start of his NFL career. He's certainly up to speed now, and the work Aiyuk has put in this offseason showed his coach just how seriously he's taking the upcoming campaign despite last year's success.
"Brandon came in with a lot of talent," Shanahan said. "... He’s always been trying to catch back [up], and each year he’s done so much better. Last year, I thought, was the best year that he’s had, and you usually know how they react to that based off the offseason.
"He’s been obsessed this offseason with football. You can tell he enjoys talking about it, he enjoys preparing for it and he’s truly become a pro, and I think the results will keep showing."
George Kittle believes Aiyuk's ascension has come from finally finding comfortability in Shanahan's offense, which gives receivers less freedom in routes than they might have on another team. Everything is timing-based, the tight end explained, with each play built around the number of steps it will take for a target to reach his destination.
"If you’re a wide receiver, you see other wide receivers throughout the league, they have a lot of freedom to do a bunch of crazy stuff in their routes and stuff -- that’s not really our offense," Kittle said Wednesday after practice. "[Our offense] is, hey, quarterback does a five-step with a hitch; your route is seven steps. You need to hit seven steps on this landmark instantly so when the quarterback throws the ball, he can look this way, and when he turns, he doesn’t even have to see you. He can just throw it, and he knows that you’re going to be right there.
"And young wide receivers in our offense, it takes them a while to figure that out because they’re like, ‘Oh, I’m just going out there to play catch’ and it’s like, no, that’s not our offense. Our offense is precise. That’s what you have to do, and it takes guys a while to realize the work ethic from the practice and the attention to detail that goes into that."
Aiyuk began to put it all together in Year 3, turning an already great football player into a bonafide standout.
"He’s learned all that, and now he gets to add his own sauce on top of all that stuff," Kittle said. "And so now you see those cool plays, the cool catches where he’s ripping it away from people. And he’s just taken another step, and it’s because he has this foundation, this understanding of this awesome offense that gives him the opportunity to go out there and just wrap people up and look like a superstar, which is what he is."
After Aiyuk pulled his catch away from Lenoir on Wednesday, he immediately let the cornerback hear it in an entertaining back-and-forth trash-talking session. And as the confident star receiver looks to follow up his breakout campaign with an explosive 2023, there's no telling what kind of energy he'll bring when the real games begin.