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Why the 49ers Could Trade Brandon Aiyuk Before April 1

Aiyuk has a $22.855 million option bonus the 49ers will have to pay him if he's still with the team on April 1.
Grant Cohn|
Oct 20, 2024; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk (11) catches a pass between Kansas City Chiefs cornerback Trent McDuffie (22) and safety Chamarri Conner (27) in the second quarter at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Cary Edmondson-Imagn Images
Oct 20, 2024; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk (11) catches a pass between Kansas City Chiefs cornerback Trent McDuffie (22) and safety Chamarri Conner (27) in the second quarter at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Cary Edmondson-Imagn Images | Cary Edmondson-Imagn Images

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San Francisco 49ers

Just a few days ago, the 49ers traded Deebo Samuel to the Washington Commanders. Now, Brandon Aiyuk could be the next one to follow him out the door.

When asked last week at the NFL Combine if teams are interested in trading for Aiyuk, general manager John Lynch said yes and that the 49ers are under tighter financial constraints than usual this year. They need to spend less cash.

Which means Samuel had to go. He's due a $15.4 million option bonus on March 22 that the 49ers clearly did not want to pay. So they traded him for a mere fifth-round pick three weeks before that cash was due. Now the Commanders have to foot the bill.

Which brings us back to Aiyuk. He has a $22.855 million option bonus the 49ers will have to pay if he's still with the team on April 1. That's a lot of cash for a player most of the organization wanted to trade before he injured his knee last season. Now he could spend most of next season rehabbing.

If the 49ers trade Aiyuk before April 1, they would lose more than $7 million in salary cap space, but they would save their owners nearly $25 million in cash for 2025. And it seems the owners value cash more than cap space this year.

Keep in mind, the 49ers reportedly are looking to sell a 10 percent stake in their football team and simultaneously are purchasing a controlling share of Rangers FC in Scotland.

Perhaps they want to diversify their portfolio and not invest so heavily in American football anymore.

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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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