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49ers WR Brandon Aiyuk Ranked No. 66 in NFL's Top 100 List

This seems like a fair ranking.

Grant Cohn

Oct 30, 2022; Inglewood, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk (11) runs the ball against the Los Angeles Rams during the first half at SoFi Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports
Oct 30, 2022; Inglewood, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk (11) runs the ball against the Los Angeles Rams during the first half at SoFi Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports / Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports
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Now we see why the 49ers and Brandon Aiyuk can't come to an agreement on a contract extension.

The market says Aiyuk is worth no less than $28 million per season, which would make him one of the highest-paid players in the league and the second-highest-paid player on the 49ers. But he's the 8th best player on the team and the 66th-best player in the league according to the NFL's Top 100 list, which is voted on by the players.

This seems like a fair ranking.

Aiyuk is an excellent no. 2 receiver, but he isn't clearly better than Dolphins no. 2 receiver Jaylen Waddle who's ranked no. 63 in the Top 100. In fact, Waddle is much faster than Aiyuk, has similar production and proved he could be a no. 1 receiver before Miami traded for Tyreek Hill. Last year, Waddle was ranked no. 44 in the Top 100 while Aiyuk was unranked.

And that's another reason the 49ers haven't offered Aiyuk as much as he wants yet. He still has had just one special season. And it wasn't completely dominant. He didn't gain 1,500 yards or score 10 touchdowns. He was efficient on the limited opportunities the 49ers gave him, which makes him a high-level no. 2 receiver. Not a true no. 1 who can take over games in the playoffs.

If Aiyuk has another dominant season this year, he surely will shoot up the rankings. He needs to prove that last season wasn't a one-off. We'll see how he plays this year after skipping most or all of the offseason.

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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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