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Albert Breer: the 49ers have Waited Too Long to Extend Brandon Aiyuk

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Grant Cohn|
Nov 23, 2023; Seattle, Washington, USA; San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk (11) catches a touchdown against the Seattle Seahawks during the fourth quarter at Lumen Field. Mandatory Credit: Joe Nicholson-USA TODAY Sports
Nov 23, 2023; Seattle, Washington, USA; San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk (11) catches a touchdown against the Seattle Seahawks during the fourth quarter at Lumen Field. Mandatory Credit: Joe Nicholson-USA TODAY Sports | Joe Nicholson-USA TODAY Sports

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San Francisco 49ers

Every team that extended its star wide receiver before today must feel extremely smart right now.

The 49ers are not one of those teams.

They've dragged their feet when it comes to extending Brandon Aiyuk's contract, just as they do every time it's time to give a new deal to a star player. And that strategy likely has cost them money, not saved them money, considering the wide receiver market has exploded now that Justin Jefferson just received a four-year, $140 million extension with more than $88 million fully guaranteed.

"That raises the bar not just for receivers, but all nonquarterbacks," writes Sports Illustrated's Albert Breer. "And among the biggest winners are the Philadelphia Eagles, Miami Dolphins, Detroit Lions and Houston Texans, who already did deals for DeVonta Smith, Jaylen Waddle, Amon-Ra St. Brown and Nico Collins this offseason.

"So good on the Vikings for taking care of Jefferson, and good on the Lions, Dolphins and Eagles for getting ahead of the market. And good luck to the San Francisco 49ers with Brandon Aiyuk and the Dallas Cowboys with CeeDee Lamb."

Technically, the 49ers could have extended Aiyuk's contract as early as last year. In hindsight, they should have done exactly that. But that's never how they do business. They wait as long as possible before extending their top players to big-money deals.

It's time they update their business strategy. Because it's costing them millions of dollars and gaining them nothing. Now it's too late to trade Aiyuk for draft picks the 49ers can use this year, so they almost have to pay him whatever he wants.

Oops.

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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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