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What Justin Jefferson's Extension Means for Brandon Aiyuk and the 49ers

The wide receiver market officially has exploded.

Grant Cohn

Oct 1, 2023; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk (11) runs onto the field before the game against the Arizona Cardinals at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Sergio Estrada-USA TODAY Sports
Oct 1, 2023; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk (11) runs onto the field before the game against the Arizona Cardinals at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Sergio Estrada-USA TODAY Sports / Sergio Estrada-USA TODAY Sports
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This is great news for Brandon Aiyuk, but not so much for the 49ers.

The Minnesota Vikings just gave star wide receiver Justin Jefferson a four-year, $140 million extension with $110 million in total guarantees, according to Adam Schefter. That's a whopping $35 million per season, which makes Jefferson the highest-paid non-quarterback in NFL history, surpassing Nick Bosa, who earns $34 million per season from the 49ers.

And that means the wide receiver market officially has exploded. It's now the second-highest-paid position in the NFL after quarterback. The last time the 49ers gave a wide receiver a mega extension, it was three years when they gave Deebo Samuel less than $24 million per season. Those were simpler times.

Now Aiyuk confidently can say he's worth no less than $30 million per season given what other wide receivers are getting paid. He probably feels he'd be worth $35 million per season if got all the targets Jefferson gets.

So if the 49ers hoped Aiyuk would cut them a break and give them a discount, they can forget about it. His price tag just went up. Now they have to decide if they think he's worth $30 million per season to them. And the correct answer is no. No receiver is worth $30 million to them, because they throw the ball so infrequently and they spread the targets around.

The 49ers should have traded Aiyuk before the draft. Instead, they held onto him so they can potentially force him to play on his fifth-year option, which makes them look cheap.

What a tough position the 49ers have put themselves in.

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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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