Some people have wondered whether Brandon Aiyuk somehow managed to tick off Kyle Shanahan when he was basically an afterthought on Sunday. After the game, Kyle pointed to Aiyuk’s hamstring issue as the reason for him not starting, but also gave credit to Trent Sherfield at the same time. During his Monday conference call, Shanahan was explicitly asked if there was anything other than the hamstring that limited Aiyuk’s role in the offense against the Lions:
“No. I just think he’s got a better person behind him this year in training camp and with Aiyuk missing some time and how well [WR] Trent Sherfield played and especially with Aiyuk missing some time heading into that game, it wasn’t a very tough decision.