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What the Stefon Diggs Trade Means for Brandon Aiyuk and the 49ers

Aiyuk is 26 -- he's just entering his prime. His best years should be ahead of him. So it's safe to assume he's worth much more than a 2025 second-round pick in a trade.
Grant Cohn|
Oct 15, 2023; Cleveland, Ohio, USA; San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk (11) just misses
Oct 15, 2023; Cleveland, Ohio, USA; San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk (11) just misses | Ken Blaze-USA TODAY Sports

A star wide receiver just got traded and it's not Brandon Aiyuk.

The Buffalo Bills reportedly have traded Stefon Diggs. a 2024 sixth-round pick and a 2024 fifth-round pick to the Houston Texans in exchange for their 2025 second-round pick. This move impacts the 49ers if they have any desire to trade AIyuk this offseason, which they should.

The Bills didn't get a ton in return for Diggs, which may come as a surprise considering Diggs has produced six consecutive 1,000-yard seasons. But he's 30, and receivers often fall off quickly at his age.

Aiyuk is 26 -- he's just entering his prime. His best years should be ahead of him. So it's safe to assume he's worth much more than a 2025 second-round pick in a trade.

Remember, Diggs also got traded when he was 26. The Vikings traded him to the Bills in exchange for their first rounder, and that was at the peak of his trade value, Aiyuk also is at the peak of his trade value right now, because he's still on his rookie contract. It stands to reason that he would be worth a first-rounder in a trade as well.

And what team might be willing to trade its first rounder to the 49ers for Aiyuk?

How about the Bills? They just lost their no. 1 wide receiver, plus they have an elite quarterback in Josh Allen who could fully maximize Brandon AIyuk's skill set.

Last season in Buffalo, Diggs got 160 targets. If Aiyuk got 160 targets in the Bills offense, they'd be even better than last season.

This trade would benefit both teams.

Published
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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