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49ers Tried to Trade for Vikings WR Justin Jefferson this Offseason

This actually makes a ton of sense.
Grant Cohn|
Dec 31, 2023; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Justin Jefferson (18) warms up before the game against the Green Bay Packers at U.S. Bank Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jeffrey Becker-USA TODAY Sports
Dec 31, 2023; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Justin Jefferson (18) warms up before the game against the Green Bay Packers at U.S. Bank Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jeffrey Becker-USA TODAY Sports | Jeffrey Becker-USA TODAY Sports

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San Francisco 49ers

This actually makes a ton of sense.

The Vikings just made Justin Jefferson the highest-paid non-quarterback in NFL history, but earlier this offseason there were some doubts as to whether the deal would get done. So before the draft, teams called the Vikings and tried to trade for Jefferson, and one of those teams was the 49ers according to ESPN's Adam Schefter.

"Never ever got close," Schefter said. "Some teams reached out. The New York Jets reached out about Justin Jefferson. The Indianapolis Colts reached out about Justin Jefferson, you know that? The 49ers reached out about Justin Jefferson, you know that?"

Of course, the Vikings said no. But I can see why the 49ers inquired. They currently are struggling to negotiate an extremely lucrative contract extension with Brandon Aiyuk, who's not as good as Jefferson. And yet Aiyuk wants the 49ers to give him nearly as much money as the Vikings gave Jefferson. He will earn $35 million per season. Aiyuk likely wants no less than $30 million per season.

So if that's how much the 49ers have to pay for Aiyuk, why not call the Vikings and see if Jefferson is available? I could see the 49ers saying, "Hey, if Aiyuk thinks he's Justin Jefferson, why don't we just trade him for Justin Jefferson?"

And of course, the Vikings declined, because Aiyuk is no Jefferson.

This news just tells me how uneager the 49ers are to make Aiyuk one of the highest-paid wide receivers in the NFL. I still think they'll make him play out the fifth-year option in his contract.

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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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