Brandon Aiyuk was potentially looking at a nice pay day this offseason from the San Francisco 49ers.
He was entering the final year of his rookie deal and was coming off an All-Pro season. He’s proven to get better each and every year. Aiyuk is the definition of a player who’s arrow is pointed up. Unfortunately, this offseason has not gone at all the way Aiyuk has hoped.
10 days of training camp have gone by and Aiyuk is nowhere near close to agreeing to a contract extension with the 49ers. He’s currently conducting a hold-in where he shows up for the meetings, but doesn’t participate in practice. That is normal nowadays for players searching for a new deal.
From The Insiders on @nflnetwork: The latest on Brandon Aiyuk, who is still a member of the #49ers as of right now. pic.twitter.com/qdVyoZOYuU
— Mike Garafolo (@MikeGarafolo) August 5, 2024
However, it is all for naught. The 49ers have dug their heels into wet cement and let it harden on their offer to Aiyuk. He is not going to get the deal that he wants despite being justified for it. That is why so many reports have been put out there today regarding Aiyuk being traded. It’s to the point where Aiyuk is more likely to be traded than signing an extension.
Aiyuk is most likely annoyed and feels disrespected by the 49ers. He is totally justified for it, and perhaps the 49ers don’t want to deal with that potential distraction. That is why a trade seems reasonable for them. Despite that, the 49ers would be foolish to trade Aiyuk.
How can a team that is all in on winning a Super Bowl this year, arguably their last best chance to do it, trade their best wide receiver? Doing so this late into the offseason isn’t wise. If the 49ers had done so before the draft, then okay that is manageable. But to do so now is foolish. I get that Aiyuk isn’t consistently heavily featured like Christian McCaffrey, but he’s still an incredibly impactful player.
Besides, who are they going to replace Aiyuk with? Now, there have been reports that the 49ers could trade Aiyuk to the Cleveland Browns in exchange for Amari Cooper. That way they still get their man-to-man beating receiver for one season. But that doesn’t seem like it’ll happen as Aiyuk has to agree to a new deal with the team acquiring him, so he gets to choose where he goes.
The 49ers are better off keeping Aiyuk so that their offense doesn’t suffer a drop off. Sure, there is the reality of Aiyuk being a distraction, but Aiyuk isn’t going to sabotage the team at the risk of hurting his value. He is still going to have to ball out in 2024. Otherwise, he will hurt his stock for 2025. The 49ers have also shown to do an excellent job of withstanding distractions.
Keep Aiyuk to see if he does have another phenomenal season. Maybe then will the 49ers feel convinced to cash him out on an extension. If not, they can always trade him after they have franchise tagged him. Either way, trading him now does them no good as I don’t see who they will get in return that can easily shrink the hole left by him.
Aiyuk and Brock Purdy clearly have an amazing rapport together, so why ruin that with the season nearly a month away? One thing that I am extremely confident in is that the 49ers will not regret retaining Aiyuk, but they will be way more likely to regret trading him now.
We’ll see how this plays out as a resolution looks to be on the horizon.
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