Why the 49ers Took So Long Negotiating with Brandon Aiyuk

The 49ers need to update their negotiation strategy.

Grant Cohn | Aug 30, 2024

Sep 11, 2022; Chicago, Illinois, USA; San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk (11) runs after a catch in the first quarter against the Chicago Bears at Soldier Field. Mandatory Credit: Daniel Bartel-USA TODAY Sports / Daniel Bartel-USA TODAY Sports

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San Francisco 49ers

In the end, the 49ers gave Brandon Aiyuk everything he wanted.

Early in the offseason, the 49ers thought they could get Aiyuk to agree to a contract extension that was worth roughly $26 million per season. Then in April, just a few weeks before the draft, the Detroit Lions gave Amon-Ra St. Brown a four-year, $120 million deal with $77 million guaranteed. And that raised Aiyuk's price.

Suddenly, Aiyuk wanted what the Lions gave St. Brown. And for more than four months, the 49ers refused. Until 11 days before the regular season, when the 49ers caved and gave Aiyuk a four-year, $120 million deal with $76 million guaranteed. Essentially the St. Brown deal.

So what took the 49ers so long?

Why did they wait so long to make an offer they could have made in April? If they had given Aiyuk the St. Brown deal in April, Aiyuk most likely would have been on the field for OTAs, minicamp and training camp and would be in position to have another All Pro season. Instead, he had zero offseason and might not be able to replicate his career year of 2023.

The 49ers have made it a pattern to drag out negotiations as long as possible. They've done this with George Kittle, Fred Warner, Deebo Samuel, Nick Bosa and now Aiyuk. As players learn the 49ers' tendencies, they've realized that if they're patient, they'll get everything they want. And they'll get to miss training camp, too. Call that an added bonus.

The 49ers need to update their negotiation strategy.

Published Aug 30, 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.