Assessing whether 49ers are winners or losers after Brandon Aiyuk news

There are some positives and negatives that comes from this news.

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The San Francisco 49ers and Brandon Aiyuk will go their separate ways this season. Aiyuk is going to allow the 49ers to void his guaranteed money, taking any future considerations away and making it easy for the team to release him.

While the 49ers do get a bit of relief from signing what turned out to be a bad contract, at the end of the day, this is not a win for the 49ers. 

The San Francisco 49ers are left wondering after Brandon Aiyuk news

Yes, the 49ers are going to save a good bit of money on the salary cap moving forward. If Aiyuk is not the same after a serious injury, it will be a huge blessing that the team is not financially tied to him anymore. However, if San Francisco wants to reach their ceiling, it will be hard to do this without Aiyuk. 

Wide receiver just shot up to the 49ers' biggest need in the draft. The team has Ricky Pearsall, but he has yet to string together four good games in a row. They have Jauan Jennings, but they should be very apprehensive about extending him after this year. Beyond those two, they are very weak at wide receiver.

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San Francisco can draft a wide receiver, but there is no sure thing that he can contribute like Aiyuk did, and it may take time for him to get there. The 49ers have an aging roster with veterans and would like to capitalize on this window. The Aiyuk decision pushed them closer to a reload than a run. 

The 49ers will have money to spend, but free agency is never the best place to go splurging. The best player San Francisco signed this offseason was Luke Farrell, and while Davante Adams and Stefon Diggs were hits as free agents this offseason, the type of receiver San Francisco will deal with in free agency is much older than Aiyuk, or much less productive. 

San Francisco has cap flexibility, but the last few draft classes are not deserving of massive extensions. They can spend the money from Aiyuk, but it is hard to see how that money can be spent on a player more impactful, at least when Aiyuk was healthy. 

This is not to say San Francisco should have seen his behavior and injury coming. Some things did not break their way. However, San Francisco is a worse team today, and they are going to struggle to find a better option with his salary hits moving forward. You do not simply replace a game-changer like Aiyuk, and this will not help their run to a Super Bowl in the coming year.