How the Lions Complicated the 49ers' Negotiations with Brandon Aiyuk

From the Lions' perspective, they would love the 49ers to trade Aiyuk for 2025 draft picks. Nothing would make Detroit happier.

Grant Cohn | Jul 9, 2024

Jan 28, 2024; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk (11) makes a catch for a touchdown against the Detroit Lions during the second half of the NFC Championship football game at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports / Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports

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San Francisco 49ers

On March 30, the 49ers signed Lions restricted free agent tight end Brock Wright to a three-year, $12 million offer sheet, which the Lions ultimately matched. So they kept Wright. But the 49ers made him more expensive for Detroit.

A month later, the Lions returned the favor to the 49ers.

On April 24, roughly a week before the NFL Draft, just around the time the 49ers and Brandon Aiyuk were getting close to an agreement on a contract extension, the Lions signed wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown to a four-year, $120 million extension. And just like that, Aiyuk's price skyrocketed. Thank you, Detroit.

The 49ers hoped they could sign Aiyuk for $26 million per season, but now he thinks he's worth $30 million per season because that's what the Lions are paying St. Brown, who's not better than Aiyuk. So if the 49ers can't reach an agreement with Aiyuk, you can blame the Lions for that. They're on the verge of breaking up their main rival in the NFC.

Now the 49ers have to decide if Aiyuk is worth $30 million per season to them the way St. Brown is worth $30 million per season to the Lions. And the 49ers probably will cave and give Aiyuk all that money because they can't afford to get worse and let the Lions pass them as the top team in the NFC this year.

From the Lions' perspective, they would love the 49ers to trade Aiyuk for 2025 draft picks. Nothing would make Detroit happier. So the 49ers are stuck. They have to pay extra for Aiyuk because the Lions changed the market.

Published Jul 9, 2024

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.