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Bleacher Report Proposes Brandon Aiyuk Trade Between Chargers & 49ers

This is an intriguing trade proposal.

Grant Cohn

Aug 25, 2023; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk (11) during the game against the Los Angeles Chargers at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Sergio Estrada-Imagn Images
Aug 25, 2023; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk (11) during the game against the Los Angeles Chargers at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Sergio Estrada-Imagn Images / Sergio Estrada-Imagn Images
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If a team wants to trade for Brandon Aiyuk, it probably can have him if it makes the 49ers an offer in the next week.

The 49ers are saving cash for Brock Purdy's upcoming extension, and Aiyuk is due a $22.855 million option bonus on April 1. So if a team is willing to pay that bonus before Aiyuk is physically capable of passing a physical, they probably can Aiyuk for a mid-round draft pick.

Remember, Aiyuk tore his ACL, MCL and meniscus last season and probably will miss some or most of next season.

And yet, Bleacher Report's Moe Moton projects the Chargers to trade the 49ers a third-round pick for Aiyuk.

"A playoff-caliber club flushed with cap space is a good suitor for Aiyuk," writes Moton.

"The Chargers have $50.7 million in cap space, and they don't need his immediate contributions. Los Angeles went 11-6 with Ladd McConkey as its most reliable pass-catcher last season.

"Once Aiyuk fully recovers, he can be a more consistent deep threat than Mike Williams on the perimeter, while McConkey attacks the intermediate zones out of the slot."

This is an intriguing trade proposal. Aiyuk would be a much better fit with the Chargers than with the 49ers because Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert has a cannon and can take full advantage of Aiyuk's ability to stretch the field. As opposed to Purdy, who is a good quarterback but not a prolific deep passer.

If the Chargers offer the 49ers their third-round pick for Aiyuk, I imagine the deal will get done. But I'm still skeptical that a team will trade for Aiyuk and his option bonus before he can run.

We'll see.

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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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