With under two weeks to go until training camp, San Francisco 49ers fans would be forgiven for having some degree of concern about the apparent lack of progress in contract talks between the franchise and All-Pro wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk.

Despite 49ers general manager John Lynch and head coach Kyle Shanahan reportedly holding a positive meeting with Aiyuk at their leading receiver's request, the two sides are said to be no closer to a deal to end what has been a long and seemingly fractious negotiation.

While Aiyuk has been vocal in voicing his displeasure at the way negotiations have gone, there has been no noise from the side of the Niners, while no other player has publicly commented on the contract saga since mandatory minicamp.

That changed on Wednesday when tight end George Kittle appeared on The Rich Eisen Show, and delivered a calming history lesson when asked about the Aiyuk situation.

"I think, if you look at my career, being a Forty Niner, and the way most of the contracts have gone, I didn't get signed until the second week of training camp, [WR] Deebo [Samuel] was pretty late [in 2022]," Kittle said. 

"[DE Nick] Bosa was [right before] the first week of [last] season. That's just how business is done out there.

"I'm not in the meetings. I have no idea [how negotiations are progressing]. I actually go out of my way to not talk to anybody going through contract negotiations, so when people ask me questions, I have absolutely no idea. But, I'm not concerned about it.

"Aiyuk's a phenomenal football player who's a big part of our offense, and he's one of the most complete receivers that I've ever played with. So I'm gonna assume that Aiyuk's gonna be on our team by the time the season starts."

Veterans report to training camp on July 23. The 49ers would ideally like to have a deal done by then, but Kittle's breakdown of previous negotiations is a much-needed reminder that training camp is very much a soft deadline.

The 49ers still have a lot of time on their side. They won't want the Aiyuk holdout to drag into training camp and risk impacting his 2024 season, but they are still the party in these talks that holds all the cards with the 2020 first-round pick under contract and the franchise tag in their back pocket for next offseason.

With any realistic possibility of a trade going out the window once the first round of this year's draft passed, the odds of Aiyuk playing his football anywhere else this season are slim. Kittle obviously knows this, and his sense of calm is likely reflected inside the building of an organization that has been down this road too many times before to panic about the lack of movement towards a deal, even at this late stage.

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He will be looking to resume normal service.