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Will the 49ers Force Brandon Aiyuk to Play on his Fifth-Year Option?

I'm guessing this saga will continue for a while.

Grant Cohn

Dec 4, 2022; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk (11) before the game against the Miami Dolphins at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Sergio Estrada-USA TODAY Sports
Dec 4, 2022; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk (11) before the game against the Miami Dolphins at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Sergio Estrada-USA TODAY Sports / Sergio Estrada-USA TODAY Sports
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A few weeks ago, Brandon Aiyuk said the 49ers have two options -- extend him or trade him. Pick one.

Turns out there could be a third option -- do nothing. Force Aiyuk to play out the fifth and final season of his rookie contract. And if he sits out for a few games, too bad for him.

Aiyuk probably thinks that if he refuses to practice and threatens to miss games, the 49ers finally will give him the extension he wants or trade him to the Steelers. But that result would be embarrassing for the 49ers. It's possible they would prefer to keep him and let him sit out.

Because if the 49ers trade Aiyuk now, they merely will get draft picks next year. If they keep him one more season, they could franchise tag him and trade him for picks next year. So they wouldn't gain much by trading him now. But they certainly would lose face to their fans and around the league and they would wave the white flag in a stand off that has gotten unusually contentious and personal.

I don't think the 49ers want to let Aiyuk get over on them. I don't think they want to let him force his way out of town and choose his destination. I don't think the 49ers want to create a precedent for players in the future.

I do think Shanahan would love to prove that he doesn't need Aiyuk to have a successful offense.

I'm guessing this saga will continue for a while.

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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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