Taking the increasingly common step of unfollowing his team during a contract situation, Brandon Aiyuk has not requested a trade. But the 49ers’ situation complicates his future. And teams are looking into this situation.
Receiver-needy teams have reached out to the 49ers about Aiyuk’s potential availability over the past several months, according to NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport. Thus far, per RapSheet (video link), San Francisco has rebuffed those efforts and is moving forward with Aiyuk on the roster. That said, John Lynch has acknowledged the challenges of this process at multiple points this offseason.
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The draft looms as the calendar’s second trade window of sorts and should be seen as one of the deadlines in this situation. The 49ers are in a good spot contractually for 2024, with Brock Purdy forced to stay on a rookie contract. By 2025, however, the team stands to have a much more complicated situation on its hands. As Purdy becomes extension-eligible, Deebo Samuel, George Kittle and Christian McCaffrey are signed to upper-crust or top-market (in McCaffrey’s case) extensions.
Kittle, McCaffrey and Samuel will be in contract years in 2025 as well. That sets up a difficult landscape for the 49ers, who have Aiyuk and Charvarius Ward contract years presently. Aiyuk, 25, led the 49ers in receiving — by a wide margin, with a career-high 1,342 — last year. With the DeVonta Smith contract (three years, $75MM, $51MM in practical guarantees) potentially settling in as the floor for an Aiyuk deal, the 49ers will need to determine their future with their talented wideout tandem.
Although extension talks have begun, the 49ers and Aiyuk — as of late March — were not close on terms. Like the Bengals and Tee Higgins, the 49ers keeping Aiyuk would provide a team on the championship doorstep — no team has ever been closer to a title without winning it than last year’s San Francisco edition — with a better chance of stepping over an elusive hurdle. But the 49ers also faced an eerily similar situation in the past. They responded to the DeForest Buckner–Arik Armstead situation, which came to a head just after their first Super Bowl loss to the Chiefs, by unloading the more expensive player for a first-round pick.
Indeed, GMs are monitoring this latest San Francisco contract quandary. One anonymous front office boss told the Washington Post’s Jason La Canfora he expects the 49ers to move…