The Broncos may have overtaken the Browns in terms of Brandon Aiyuk relevance, as their decision to turn down a 49ers offer for Courtland Sutton may well have triggered a chain reaction that cost the Steelers their chance at the All-Pro wide receiver.
Weeks before Aiyuk finally accepted San Francisco’s $30MM-per-year offer, he is believed to have received the same AAV proposal from the Browns, according to NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport (video link). The Browns did not last too long as an Aiyuk suitor, but as the 49ers let the contract-seeking wideout speak with other teams to gauge his market, Cleveland’s offer outflanked Pittsburgh’s.
[RELATED: Browns Still Open To Amari Cooper Extension]
Not reported to have submitted Aiyuk an extension offer worth more than $28MM per year, the Steelers indeed checked in south of that point. They were at $27.7MM per annum, Rapoport adds. That would have placed Aiyuk behind Jaylen Waddle and ahead of D.J. Moore. When it all wrapped, Aiyuk surpassed both on a frontloaded agreement. He is now the NFL’s sixth $30MM-AAV receiver.
Browns-49ers talks occurred in early August, at the same point the player’s camp was negotiating with the Patriots and Steelers. Trade framework with both Cleveland and New England emerged. Aiyuk’s AFC negotiations still led him back to the table with the 49ers, but not before the Browns had made an interesting offer.
Cleveland is believed to have dangled Amari Cooper, along with second- and fifth-round picks, for Aiyuk. With Cooper in a contract year, the Browns were planning to have Aiyuk at $30MM per annum and Jerry Jeudy at $17.5MM a year. It will be interesting to see if Cooper’s camp, which could not secure an extension this offseason, uses this Aiyuk offer in future negotiations. With the Browns probably not eager to acquire a player who did not want to land in Cleveland, the trade ended up on the cutting-room floor; Aiyuk is believed to have shown little interest in the Browns or Patriots.
The Pats indeed offered $32MM per year, Rapoport confirms. That led the pack in terms of extension offers, and it marked a stark deviation from how the organization proceeded under Bill Belichick. But Eliot Wolf has signed off on a spree of extensions and re-signings for Belichick-era pieces this year. The team also made a strong effort to sign Calvin Ridley in free agency, only to see the Titans come out victorious. The Ridley and Aiyuk pursuits reflected where the Pats believe they are deficient, and they will go into Drake Maye‘s rookie year with an undermanned group — albeit one including second-round rookie Ja’Lynn Polk.
As for the Browns, they have made trades for Elijah Moore and Jerry Jeudy over the past two offseasons. Those two will join Cooper, whose contract issue eventually produced an incentive package. Cooper remains a 2025 free agent-to-be. The high-end route runner would have made for an interesting 49ers addition, and the sides could have worked out a contract. Though, Cooper is four years older than Aiyuk. Part of the reason the 49ers wanted to re-up the 2020 first-rounder stemmed from his prime being ahead of him. Cooper already has seven 1,000-yard seasons on his resume, but he will naturally decline earlier.
Cooper also has a superior resume to Sutton, who would have made for a different type of Brock Purdy target compared to Aiyuk. More of a jump-ball threat and possession receiver, the 28-year-old Denver wideout is coming off a 10-touchdown year. The Broncos clearly want the seventh-year pass catcher, who remains on a team-friendly deal that runs through 2025, to help the team develop Bo Nix.
None of these teams would have been relevant in the Aiyuk negotiations had the 49ers hammered out a deal early this offseason. While it is not exactly fair to penalize the NFC West club for not completing a deal before the Lions extended Amon-Ra St. Brown in April, Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio adds the team’s initial offer in the $27MM-per-year neighborhood would have gotten a deal done before the Lions wideout cashed in at $30.01MM per annum.
By July, the 49ers still stood at $27MM per year. We heard the team upped its offer in early August. By August 12, it is believed the $30MM-AAV proposal was on the table. Aiyuk managed to skip two more weeks’ worth of practice, but the sides finally reached an agreement. After the comments of Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch this week, Rapoport adds the 49ers essentially gave Aiyuk an ultimatum: either agree to the team’s offer or take the Steelers trade.
San Francisco did not only contact Denver about an escape-hatch wide receiver; the team made calls to several other teams about pass catchers, Rapoport adds. It is not known if the 49ers offered a third-rounder to any other team, but the Broncos — perhaps a sign for Sutton’s potential pre-deadline availability — are the only known team to pass on being the third party in what would have essentially been a three-team trade.
The 49ers were always the favorites here, but Aiyuk having interest in Cleveland or New England would have made matters more interesting due to the extension offers both clubs made.
These WR extensions will need to end at some point. WR and RB are like the icing on the cake. Your QB and linemen on both sides of the ball are what really matter. If you can’t control the line of scrimmage, I don’t care if you have prime Jerry Rice and prime Randy Moss out there with Justin Jefferson in the slot. You have no chance of winning if you don’t have a solid foundation to your team. A good QB can throw any receiver open. Any QB with enough time behind the line of scrimmage can complete a pass to anyone. A defensive line that gets into the backfield every play negates needing a top secondary. This is where teams should be throwing their money. Brady never won with a top receiver. He won with a great O-line and great D-line. Does Mahomes have a top WR? No, he has a great O-line, D-line, and tight end. Who came up big in the last few super bowls? It was Chris Jones, Aaron Donald before that, and JPP and Shaq Barrett before that, along with great offensive lines for the Chiefs, Rams, and Bucs, respectively.
I just want to point out a few things: Edelman was absolutely referred to as a top 10 WR for multiple seasons of deep NE runs, while Welker was at one time ridiculously argued as the best WR in the NFL during a FOX pre-game segment by a former WR (I don’t recall who) while the rest of the pundits put him in the top 5 at worst. He also had Gronk, who was easily the best TE in the game at the time, and arguably the greatest ever at the position. He had prime Randy Moss, as well, almost putting up a 1500 yard season with 23 TDs who went on to produce two more elite statistical seasons after that.
Mahomes has had Kelce throughout his career, who has always been a top 3 TE each of his seasons, and will go down as a top 5 TE in history and a first ballot HOF. In the 2020 Super Bowl season, he had Tyreek Hill who was undoubtedly an elite WR.
While I agree with your argument that teams win in the trenches, there is a caveat that you can’t have bums at skill positions. Brady and Mahomes did damage with solid weapons. Nobody has won in modern times without a good #1 WR.
Edelman and Welker were not Top 10 receivers. They were try-hard system receivers that put up huge fantasy football stats by getting a dozen catches a game in the slot. There is a reason both went undrafted, and Welker was a nobody after he left New England. I was not including tight ends because tight ends are also blockers. Gronk and Kelce have been Top 5 all time not just because of receiving stats but because of their blocking prowess. If they both weighed 50 pounds less and lined up outside they would be much less valuable. The Patriots won zero SBs with Moss in fact Moss won zero SBs in his career. Moss is also the most talented receiver in NFL history, certainly an outlier to the likes of Aiyuk and Amari Cooper.
Moss was also getting most of his salary paid for by the Raiders at the time, and then demanded a trade when the Pats didn’t pay him. My point is you can’t win the Super Bowl if all of your salary cap is going to your skill position players. Chiefs traded Tyreek to pay Chris Jones and their offensive line and then won two straight Super Bowls. The Patriots never paid top dollar for a receiver. Sure, they drafted a few good ones or traded for a few good ones, but again, they came cheap. The 49ers can only pay their skill guys so much because Purdy is making minimum salary. In two years, they can’t (and shouldn’t) pay all these skill guys if they want to win.
The stories over but they just can’t stop writing about it.
It’s either this, or how dangerous Brazil is. Not much to talk about until the season starts…then we can start overreacting to Week 1 games.
It’s all about getting the information to the public. You buy a ticket, you are paying a salary. The fans deserve to know what’s going on.
How can you be sure you “know what’s going on” with this? It’s just more speculation that may or may not be true on a storyline that was blown way out of proportion.
3 years $77m is $30m per year? Stop reporting the fake years added at the end, it makes you look incompetent and untrustworthy.
He had no intention of ever going anywhere….just played them all to get the niners to cough up the money and years he wanted……
I don’t understand Cleveland and as a Browns fan I just don’t understand why they’d offer a productive guy that puts his head down and goes to work for a diva. I’d think getting though one seriously bad contract in Watson should be first before adding more drama