The 49ers are starting to become notorious for having some of the stingiest purse strings in the NFL. The latest example sees the team go toe-to-toe with yet another star wide receiver in contract negotiations; this time, it’s Brandon Aiyuk. In an appearance on The Pat McAfee Show today, Mike Florio of NBC Sports revealed that at least five teams had shown a willingness to pay Aiyuk his asking price. 
Florio’s tidbit is a little out of context for the current situation but is still relevant. According to Florio, during the draft, Aiyuk and his camp asked for permission to gauge interest in Aiyuk’s value around the league. His agent was given permission to see how much other teams would be willing to pay Aiyuk, and five teams were willing to meet his asking price at the time of $28MM per year.
Since then, new deals for receivers such as Jaylen Waddle, Amon-Ra St. Brown, A.J. Brown, and Justin Jefferson have vastly shifted the wide receiver-market. Aiyuk, who finished seventh in the league in receiving yards last year (1,342), may not have the stats to reach the payday of some of the players above him, but one must consider two other contributing factors.
First, after missing four games his rookie season (two with COVID-19), Aiyuk has only missed one game in the following three years. Second, Aiyuk is putting up the numbers he’s putting up without being the main focal point of the offense. Even throwing aside star players like running back Christian McCaffrey and tight end George Kittle, Aiyuk didn’t even get the most opportunities in the wide receivers room. While Aiyuk outpaced Deebo Samuel with 105 targets to Samuel’s 89, Samuel had 37 rushing attempts on top of that.
Aiyuk producing as much as he has in four years while being a third option of four star players should certainly have an impact on his asking price. Imagine the numbers Aiyuk would be able to put up had he the target share of a CeeDee Lamb or a Jefferson. Aiyuk’s contributions over his first four years could be considered comparable to those of Waddle, who recently received a three-year deal averaging $28.25MM a year with the Dolphins.
Now, having requested a trade, the 49ers face the consequences of allowing Aiyuk to theoretically test the market. Not only are there going to be teams willing to give Aiyuk the payday he deserves, but those teams are also going to be willing to give something up in order to obtain his rights in the first place, giving San Francisco little wiggle room to negotiate the price down.
Aiyuk’s situation is becoming a familiar one in San Francisco. Playing the compliant team player has gotten him nowhere in his contract negotiations. To move the needle, Aiyuk made the call to model his behavior after that of two 49ers who did receive paydays in recent years: Samuel and pass rusher Nick Bosa. Both players needed to get creative in negotiations, with Samuel requesting a trade and Bosa holding out at camp. As Florio so aptly worded it, “We’ve seen that you’ve got to be the squeaky wheel to get paid by the 49ers.”
Regardless, there is a market for Aiyuk in the NFL. The 49ers are not bidding against themselves, though their goal of $26MM-27MM suggests that they believe they’re negotiating in a vacuum. Just days ago, we saw the Patriots make inquiries into acquiring Aiyuk. The Commanders and Steelers were also considered contenders to land the wide receiver at some point. Aiyuk will get paid somewhere in the near future. The 49ers just have to decide if they want to open the pocketbook or let someone else pay Aiyuk.
Falcons.
Who cares? He’s under contract for up to three more years. He has zero leverage and the Niners aren’t trading him unless they get a similar player back. Not happening.
Three more years? Where did you see this? Spotrac says he is in his final season of his deal.
You mean franchise tags the Niners can’t possibly afford to give him?
Or maybe they tag him to trade him? They can afford that. Or could trade deebo, which would save them almost that amount.
You’re clueless…he’s on the 4th year of his 5 year, Rookie contract…there’s a 5th year option left.
This year is his fifth year option. He was drafted in 2020.
Count with us Padre
2020
2021
2022
2023 last season
2024 this season
5 ha ha ha seasons 5
Plus the franchise.
SF ain’t using the franchise tag next year. They’re currently slated to be almost $39 million over the cap next year with no Aiyuk and no new money for Purdy. They could theoretically keep Aiyuk, but the inflexibility of the tag would make that really hard, assuming they’re not going to pay Purdy $1.1 million once he’s extension eligible.
The first sentence here is just ridiculous. Is the author even familiar with the sport they write about, or is this weak attempt at stirring up crap to drive engagement? The 49ers are not stingy, they are masterfully building an elite roster within cap requirements. You can’t pay everyone the top rate for their position and operate under the cap. Simple mathematics. The teams with plenty of cap to spare for those who want the most have few superstars.
Players can choose to get paid their top rate if they can get it elsewhere, or choose to get paid a little less on a team with one of the best chances to win.
The 49ers do have a model they follow, and I’m not saying it is wrong; but the author isn’t wrong either for writing that. If you’re unwilling to pay players their value, you’re stingy. Maybe you’d prefer a different word, but it’s all the same thing.
As to your point about the cap, they could manipulate the numbers to comply. It’s doable. Plenty of teams have done it. The Niners simply don’t want to, which is their right. You need star players, though. I’d argue the 49ers chances of winning it all go down significantly without Aiyuk.
Also, since only one team wins the SB every year, and that relies on a ton of factors, always take the money. Always.
I don’t agree. It’s not about disliking a word, it’s about the absurdity of the notion. The reality is that not every player necessarily can be paid their value. That’s not stinginess, it’s business in a zero-sum game. There’s only so much money available to a team for salary, so one team can’t pay every player the top salary awarded by other teams for a particular position. Other teams make different choices to have imbalanced teams hoping that people will still support a team that loses as long as they have one superstar flashy player.
Also, because of the timing of contracts and free agency, others get their payday first, and then some cannot.
The reported offer to Aiyuk is to be paid generational wealth near the top of the “market”, but he is balking because he wants as much as so-and-so got without considering the cap context of the team. The 49ers are trying to make it work within the limitations of the cap and he wants more. He can want that – does that make him greedy? I don’t think so, not necessarily. But it won’t work in the financial scheme of the cap complexity, and just as it doesn’t make the player greedy it doesn’t make the team stingy.
The 49ers just set salary records for CMC and Bosa. They value their players, and pay them handsomely.
Without a cap there would be more freedom to spend and give players lavish gifts and benefits, like the 49ers of the 80s and early 90s.
This reporting is weak infotainment – malinformation as inflammatory statements to get all the hero worshippers and armchair GMs in a tizzy.
It’s a terrible first sentence. By these standards, every holdout means the team is stingy.
In the long-run, every team spends just about the same. It’s kind of why they refer to it as a cap. If you have enough good players, someone has to go.
BTW, were the Chiefs stingy when they traded Hill?
Are the Cowboys stingy for not paying Prescott?
Is Seattle stingy for not paying Russell Wilson?
Is Houston stingy for not paying Watson?
This is all coming from florio, who isn’t exactly reliable. If so many teams were willing to pay him, why didn’t they meet the niners need for a first round pick? Cause they were willing to pay that if he were free, he isn’t though. He’s not going anywhere this year, makes no sense for the niners.
Teams did offer 1st…
Niners kept asking for more, he isn’t worth multiple first along with the big contract. Niners know this is the last of the window so they weren’t going to deal him. They thought he would just be a sheep and go along with it.
I’m not sure you can simultaneously hold the view that he isn’t worth it and that he is a sheep for not going along with it.
I said the Niners thought he would be a sheep and go along with it…clearly he isn’t.
The 49ers want to win (and they are doing a damn good job of winning their division, going to NFC Championships and Super Bowls). That means managing the cap.
The best move now is to let someone else pay Aiyuk and collect draft capital at the same time. Worked out just fine for the Vikings (gave up Diggs on a high-priced contract and got Justin Jefferson on a rookie deal). Wide receivers if you pick them right, are ready early. WR aren’t like offensive linemen or linebackers, tight ends or QB’s who require a few years in the barrique to mature.
The draft has past…it does not help them this year trading him for picks.
The 49ers have a young QB and quite a bit of talent. Future drafts are relevant.
Sometimes you trade Diggs and draft Jefferson. Sometimes you trade AJ Brown and draft Treylon Burks.
Because Diggs for Jefferson is just one example of it working out. They could easily end up in a AJ Brown swapped for Treylon Burks scenario. Or looking at niners history, when they gave up Buckner and used that pick on Kinlaw.
They not only used it on Kinlaw they traded with Tampa who picked Tristan Wirfs…9ers have oline problems but would have had Williams & Wirfs.
I’m not sure there is one iota of difference between this and KC trading Hill.
Hill was two years older with significant off field trouble and the Chiefs had the best quarterback on earth. That’s more than an iota, I’d say.
Is he good? Yes. Is he being rewarded for playing on a team with many weapons other than himself? Absolutely. Not sure he translates the same success elsewhere.
@Padam. The opposite could be true also. He was targeted much less for his production. If targeted more, his production could be increased.
San Francisco needs to be all in this year before Purdy gets paid. The time is now to win a SB
Haven’t they been “all in” for the last couple of years already? Their clock is ticking with their star players all getting a year older each and every year they don’t win it all……
But his efficiency was at an unsustainable pace this past year. If you give Aiyuk 60 more targets his production may not be THAT much more. He will regress towards the mean in terms of efficiency. If Aiyuk wants to get paid at the amount he is seeking, he needs to play this year out on his 5th year option and ball out. He’ll then get paid no matter what, with the 49ers or another team.
Lions Steelers Commanders Patriots Broncos should all be making phone calls
As a Seahawks fan, Aiyuk is a better receiver than Samuel and he’s always available. While I hope the Niners trade him, for obvious reasons, I highly doubt it. This is all just part of the process in negotiations
I think there are truly teams that are willing to pay him close to what he is asking, the problem is that teams, clearly, are not willing to pay $30m, with a lot of guaranteed $ in a long term deal, on the table and give SF the compensation on top of it that they want. I doubt any of us truly know what SF’s ask is, but after the draft they are probably figuring that he has more value this year for their contending team than the draft pick compensation they are getting offered back. I would imagine a team like the Steelers would give up a 3rd rd draft pick and give him the $, but it seems obvious that they, amongst other teams, don’t want to give up really high draft picks, and put that huge $ on their cap. If he was going into the 3rd year of his 5 year contract, SF would get a lot more than they are today, in terms of offers, but he isn’t.
As a Raider fan, I’d certainly be open to talk, but just like with Watson & Wilson, there is a limit to how much you can pay on both $$$ and picks.
Deebo gets traded (eventually) and they extend BA.