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Why the 49ers Might Consider Trading Brandon Aiyuk

Aiyuk most likely is worth somewhere between $25 million and $27 million per season -- that's a ton of dough. And if the 49ers give it to Aiyuk, lots of analysts will praise the 49ers. But if they don't give him the ball more frequently, what will they really be paying for?
Grant Cohn|
Super Bowl LVIII - San Francisco 49ers v Kansas City Chiefs
Super Bowl LVIII - San Francisco 49ers v Kansas City Chiefs | Michael Zagaris/GettyImages

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San Francisco 49ers

I'm sure the 49ers would love to extend Brandon Aiyuk's contract -- he's an outstanding player. But he also will be extremely expensive soon, and the 49ers don't give him the ball nearly enough to justify what they'd have to pay to keep him.

Aiyuk most likely is worth somewhere between $25 million and $27 million per season -- that's a ton of dough. And if the 49ers give it to Aiyuk, lots of analysts will praise the 49ers. But if they don't give him the ball more frequently, what will they really be paying for?

A wide receiver who earns that much money should be the focal point of his team's passing offense. Think CeeDee Lamb, Davante Adams, Tyreek Hill, Stefon Diggs. These receivers all get more than 160 targets per season, while Aiyuk got just 105 last season.

And in big games, Aiyuk frequently becomes the 49ers' third or fourth option behind Christian McCaffrey, Deebo Samuel and sometimes George Kittle. It's impossible to say why Kyle Shanahan doesn't trust Aiyuk more in big moments, but he doesn't.

It seems clear the 49ers want to change as little about their offense as possible, and giving Aiyuk more than 160 targets would be a big change. Shanahan would rather feature his running back and lead the league in rushing yards. That's why the 49ers offense ranked dead last in pass attempts last season.

If the 49ers can trade Aiyuk for a first-round pick, I expect they'll do it.

Stay tuned.

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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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