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Should the 49ers Trade Brandon Aiyuk to Save Cash?

If they think Aiyuk won't make a full recovery, they should take whatever they can get for him and move his contract before it's unmovable.

Grant Cohn

Sep 29, 2024; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk (11) celebrates after a catch against the New England Patriots during the first quarter at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Sergio Estrada-Imagn Images
Sep 29, 2024; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk (11) celebrates after a catch against the New England Patriots during the first quarter at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Sergio Estrada-Imagn Images / Sergio Estrada-Imagn Images
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When John Lynch was asked at the Combine if the 49ers might trade Brandon Aiyuk this offseason, Lynch responded by saying that the 49ers are under tighter financial constraints than usual. Then the 49ers traded Deebo Samuel a few days later.

By trading Samuel when they did, the 49ers avoided paying him a $15.4 million option bonus. That's a big chunk of change.

Aiyuk is even more expensive. He has a $22.855 million option bonus due on April 1. If the 49ers want to save as much cash as possible, trading Aiyuk would be the place to start.

Unfortunately for the 49ers, Aiyuk tore his ACL, MCL and meniscus this past season. He probably will miss the entire offseason and some of the season, and it's unclear if he ever will regain the speed and quickness he had before the injury. And his contract is outrageous. So he probably doesn't have a ton of trade value.

When the 49ers dealt Samuel to Washington, they got a fifth-round pick in return. If they trade Aiyuk, they probably will get nothing more than a fourth-round pick.

So is it worth it? Should they trade him?

If they think Aiyuk won't make a full recovery, they should take whatever they can get for him and move his contract before it's unmovable.

But if they think he will make a full recovery, then they can't trade him away for nothing just to save the owners some cash. They would regret the trade for years.

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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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