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Insider Predicts 49ers Will Sign Aiyuk and Williams on Labor Day Weekend

Labor Day weekend is one week before the regular season opener. Last year, the 49ers signed Nick Bosa four days before the regular season opener. So there is precedent of these negotiations dragging on.

Grant Cohn

Jan 16, 2022; Arlington, Texas, USA; San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk (11) and offensive tackle Trent Williams (71) celebrate on the field during the second half of the NFC Wild Card playoff football game against the Dallas Cowboys at AT&T Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports
Jan 16, 2022; Arlington, Texas, USA; San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk (11) and offensive tackle Trent Williams (71) celebrate on the field during the second half of the NFC Wild Card playoff football game against the Dallas Cowboys at AT&T Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports / Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports
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The never ending contract sagas involving Trent Williams and Brandon Aiyuk could get resolved in the next two weeks.

Both players will miss all of training camp and the preseason. But Sports Illustrated's Albert Breer believes both will sign new deals with the 49ers in the coming days.

"I’d say Labor Day weekend is a fair target," writes Breer. "I do think both of them get taken care of."

Labor Day weekend is one week before the regular season opener. Last year, the 49ers signed Nick Bosa four days before the regular season opener. So there is precedent of these negotiations dragging on.

Williams and Aiyuk surely saw how the 49ers caved at the last minute and gave Bosa everything he wanted. So they should be inclined to wait until the last minute just to see if the 49ers will get desperate and up their contract offers. That's what they've done in the past. And the players know the team is desperate to get back to the Super Bowl this year. And the 49ers might not be able to make it without Williams and Aiyuk.

Still, I'm not as confident as Breer that both contracts will get taken care of. I have no doubt that the 49ers will sign Williams -- he's utterly essential and Kyle Shanahan loves him. Shanahan does not seem to love Aiyuk. Those two seem to have a personal beef. So I wouldn't be surprised if the 49ers were to trade Aiyuk to Pittsburgh or Washington just a few days before the season starts.

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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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