Should the 49ers Trade Brandon Aiyuk to the Packers for Christian Watson?

The 49ers don't have any wide receivers who possess Watson's blend of size and speed.

Grant Cohn | Jun 11, 2024

Green Bay Packers wide receiver Christian Watson (9) acknowledges fans after their 31-28 overtime win against the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday, Nov. 13, 2022 at Lambeau Field in Green Bay. / Mike De Sisti / Milwaukee Journal

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San Francisco 49ers

If the 49ers can't come to an agreement on a contract extension with Brandon Aiyuk before the season starts, the team could decide that its best course of action is to trade him.

Bleacher Report's Alex Kay proposes a trade that would send Brandon Aiyuk to the Green Bay Packers in exchange for a second-round pick in 2024 and wide receiver Christian Watson.

"Watson should greatly intrigue the Niners' brass," writes Kay. "Although he has only appeared in 23 games since being drafted No. 34 overall in 2022, he has been a consistent scoring force when healthy. He's racked up 14 total touchdowns since entering the NFL and his unique blend of size (6'4", 208 pounds) and athleticism could be put to great use in San Francisco's scheme."

The 49ers don't have any wide receivers who possess Watson's blend of size and speed, so he would be a nice addition. But I highly doubt the 49ers would trade Aiyuk for another wide receiver when they just drafted Ricky Pearsall in Round 1 and Jacob Cowing in Round 4. The 49ers have too many wide receivers already. They don't really need another one. Instead, they could use an offensive lineman.

In addition, if the 49ers trade Aiyuk, I highly doubt they'd trade him to a team in the NFC, particularly one they likely would see in the playoffs. That trade could come back to bite the 49ers if Watson gets injured again and Aiyuk has another monster season and performs well against them head to head. Remember, the 49ers will play in Green this year.

I don't see this trade happening.

Published Jun 11, 2024

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.