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Former NFL OC Explains Why the 49ers Should Trade Brandon Aiyuk

"He's not utilized on the 49ers like he should be."
Grant Cohn|
Feb 5, 2024; Las Vegas, NV, USA; San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk (11) during Super Bowl LVIII Opening Night at Allegiant Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
Feb 5, 2024; Las Vegas, NV, USA; San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk (11) during Super Bowl LVIII Opening Night at Allegiant Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports | Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

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San Francisco 49ers

The 49ers don't seem to know what to do with Brandon Aiyuk.

They want to keep him, but they don't want to pay him what the wide receiver market says he's worth. So the two sides are in a stalemate as they attempt to negotiate a contract extension.

Former Raiders offensive coordinator and play caller Tom Walsh thinks the 49ers should have traded Aiyuk before the draft. Here's why.

WALSH: "He's not utilized on the 49ers like he should be. From my perspective, he's being wasted right now. I would have traded Aiyuk and gotten players and/or draft picks because he's never going to be utilized and worth the amount of money they're going to have to pay him for what he's going to do in the 49ers offense because the 49ers offense is not designed to take advantage of what Aiyuk does best. That's not a good fit. You might love the guy, but on game day, how many shot plays is he going to get? Not many. For what they're going to have to pay him, that's not worth it. But they could get something worthwhile for him if they trade him to Buffalo. Josh Allen would love to have Aiyuk in Buffalo."

ME: Would Al Davis have wanted him?

WALSH: "Oh yeah. When Mike Martz, my former college classmate, was running the Rams, he had all those great receivers -- Isaac Bruce, Torry Holt. Aiyuk would have fit right in with those guys. There's no question about it. But on the Niners? They don't get him the ball down the field enough."

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Grant Cohn
GRANT COHN

Grant Cohn has covered the San Francisco 49ers daily since 2011. He spent the first nine years of his career with the Santa Rosa Press Democrat where he wrote the Inside the 49ers blog and covered famous coaches and athletes such as Jim Harbaugh, Colin Kaepernick and Patrick Willis. In 2012, Inside the 49ers won Sports Blog of the Year from the Peninsula Press Club. In 2020, Cohn joined FanNation and began writing All49ers. In addition, he created a YouTube channel which has become the go-to place on YouTube to consume 49ers content. Cohn's channel typically generates roughly 3.5 million viewers per month, while the 49ers' official YouTube channel generates roughly 1.5 million viewers per month. Cohn live streams almost every day and posts videos hourly during the football season. Cohn is committed to asking the questions that 49ers fans want answered, and providing the most honest and interactive coverage in the country. His loyalty is to the reader and the viewer, not the team or any player or coach. Cohn is a new-age multimedia journalist with an old-school mentality, because his father is Lowell Cohn, the legendary sports columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1979 to 1993. The two have a live podcast every Tuesday. Grant Cohn grew up in Oakland and studied English Literature at UCLA from 2006 to 2010. He currently lives in Oakland with his wife.

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