New contract for Brandon Aiyuk? Why 49ers aren’t thinking trade.
SANTA CLARA, Calif. — In each of the past four offseasons, the San Francisco 49ers have meticulously worked on signing one of their emerging young stars to a lucrative contract extension. It has become a tradition that is equal parts exciting and exasperating for those involved.
Each of those deals — tight end George Kittle (2020), linebacker Fred Warner (2021), receiver Deebo Samuel (2022) and end Nick Bosa (2023) — offered a unique challenge with varying degrees of tension.
Samuel’s negotiations were the most contentious, including a trade request that wasn’t granted. Bosa’s deal took the longest, nearly keeping him out of last season’s opener against the Steelers.
Amid rumors and speculation, all those extensions eventually got done. It’s why, as the Niners and wideout Brandon Aiyuk embark on another attempt at a mutually beneficial payday, the Niners’ overriding feeling is one of optimism even as the internet invents nonexistent trade offers.
“I’ve watched it with Deebo, George, Fred, all these guys,” coach Kyle Shanahan said. “You’ve just got to be patient. You’ve got to let it play itself out, not get involved, and usually when you’re in a situation like we are where you’ve got a real good player who wants to be here and we want the player to be here extremely bad too, what I found with us it doesn’t always happen right away, but it’s a matter of time it ends up working out.”
In part because of those deals, the outside assumption has been that the Niners would have to swallow hard and trade Aiyuk because of the realities of an increasingly top-heavy salary cap.
The thinking isn’t unfounded. The 49ers have a handful of highly paid stars who eat up a significant chunk of their cap. Those assumptions have also been short-sighted relative to San Francisco’s thinking for the better part of the past year.
At the 2023 spring NFL league meetings in Phoenix, general manager John Lynch acknowledged that teams had already been calling about Aiyuk’s potential availability, noting it would be unusual for a team to pay two receivers at or near the top of the market for their position. The Niners had no desire to trade Aiyuk then, and according to multiple team sources, had already begun planning for an Aiyuk extension to come in 2024 so long as he was able to stay healthy and build on a breakout 2022 season.
