Will the 49ers trade, release or keep WR Brandon Aiyuk?

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — In the days after the San Francisco 49ers‘2025 season ended, basic supervisor John Lynch made it clear that the workforce can be parting methods with huge receiver Brandon Aiyuk sooner or later this offseason.

At the NFL mix a month later, Lynch mentioned the workforce was ready for the new league 12 months in March to make that transaction official sooner or later thereafter.

Then finally week’s league conferences in Phoenix, coach Kyle Shanahan echoed that feelinghowever clarified that the transfer would not be completed rapidly except somebody made an appropriate commerce supply.

“I don’t have a date for it,” Shanahan mentioned. “But I know eventually it’ll resolve itself. Hopefully, we could get something for [him]. And I know we’re in no rush to do that.”

In what’s changing into one in all the longest divorce proceedings In current NFL reminiscence, the Niners are clinging to hope that they will get something for a participant who hasn’t performed since Oct. 20, 2024 (when he tore the ACL, MCL and meniscus in his right knee) and hasn’t been in contact with the workforce since late November.

Despite Shanahan’s and Lynch’s feedback about Aiyuk shifting on, Niners proprietor Jed York added a brand new wrinkle final week by indicating there’s a minimum of an extended shot chance Aiyuk may stick with the workforce in 2026.

“I think anything is possible, right?” York mentioned. “We want to make sure that we have as talented of a roster as possible. First and foremost, he needs to get healthy and be able to perform. I think once that happens, he’s a really, really good football player.”

Here’s a deeper have a look at the place issues stand with Aiyuk, the possibilities of a commerce and whether or not it is truly attainable he’ll keep in San Francisco.

How lengthy will the 49ers keep Aiyuk?

For now, the solely deadline is Sept. 1, when Aiyuk has a $24.935 million choice bonus due. The 49ers would like to maneuver on from Aiyuk lengthy earlier than then, however with that date to this point out, it a minimum of provides them flexibility.

The Niners do not want the minimal 2026 cap house that releasing Aiyuk would create, so that they’re incentivized to carry on to him in case a workforce needs to make a commerce supply.

While Shanahan’s and York’s feedback appeared to trace at various things on the floor, they each successfully served to let the league know that in the event that they wish to purchase Aiyuk, consider his well being and get him acclimated throughout the offseason program, they’d should do one thing quickly.

“You’ve got to do what’s right for the Niners and you’re not trying to hook up any other team as fast as you possibly can,” Shanahan mentioned.

Team and league sources have indicated that the Washington Commanders are the almost certainly touchdown spot for Aiyuk when he does transfer on. Commanders basic supervisor Adam Peters was in San Francisco’s personnel division when it drafted Aiyuk. More necessary, Aiyuk is shut associates with Washington quarterback Jayden Daniels from their shared time at Arizona State, and Aiyuk has been open about his need to play with Daniels in the previous. If anybody can supply some perception into how Aiyuk is doing, it is in all probability Daniels.

Shanahan and Peters dined collectively at the league conferences in Phoenix, however it stays to be seen whether or not the Commanders can be keen to surrender one thing for Aiyuk reasonably than wait to see whether or not he is launched.

For now, the 49ers appear content material to attend and see if any workforce is keen to present them one thing for Aiyuk.

How do the financials play into makes an attempt to commerce Aiyuk?

Aiyuk’s base wage for 2026 is simply $1.215 million, a relative discount, all issues thought of. But that bonus choice complicates issues for any workforce that might look to amass him.

If the bonus will get exercised, the workforce using Aiyuk must prorate it by means of 2030, successfully including doubtlessly important useless cash to their cap if Aiyuk would not produce. That bonus additionally is not assured after the Niners voided Aiyuk’s remaining guarantees final July when he did not take part in necessary rehab periods for his injured proper knee.

But if that choice bonus is not exercised, an buying workforce can be on the hook for all of it directly, driving his wage for 2026 to greater than $26 million. Combine that with base salaries that inflate to $27.274 million in 2027 and $29.15 million in 2028, and it is onerous to check any workforce desirous to pay Aiyuk that a lot, particularly with the uncertainty surrounding him coming off the damage and the way issues in San Francisco have performed out.

Any workforce wanting to amass Aiyuk would virtually actually wish to rework his deal, one thing that might show difficult since that might give Aiyuk company in the place he finally lands.

If the 49ers do release Aiyuk earlier than June 1, the plan is to do it with a post-June 1 designation. That would imply the practically $30 million in useless cash they need to tackle the wage cap can be cut up up into $13.325 million in 2026 and $21.247 million in 2027.

Those similar numbers additionally apply to a commerce, though it needs to be famous that trades can’t be given the post-June 1 designation, so if the Niners wished to separate up the cash and commerce Aiyuk, they’d have to attend till June.

Is it sensible to assume somebody will commerce for Aiyuk, and in that case, what may the 49ers get?

Considering all the monetary implications and the quantity of unknowns about Aiyuk, it is tough to check a workforce being keen to commerce for him.

That has been the case to this point, although maybe it may change after the draft if a receiver-needy workforce cannot fill its wants at the place. What’s extra, it is onerous to know what Aiyuk is considering since he hasn’t publicly addressed something that has occurred in San Francisco since his damage in 2024.

As for what the Niners may get for Aiyuk, he presents together with picks in the first few rounds (like they received earlier than he signed his contract extension in 2024) have lengthy since disappeared.

In conditions like this, a late-round choose swap is commonly the answer, however the Niners cannot actually do this on this 12 months’s draft as a result of they do not at the moment personal any picks past the fourth spherical. That, once more, factors to any distant likelihood of a commerce coming after the draft and maybe properly into the summer season with minimal returns together with picks in 2027 and past.

Could the 49ers mend fences and keep Aiyuk?

It can be silly to rule out something, particularly in terms of the 49ers. In 2022, the Niners and quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo very publicly said goodbye to each other in anticipation of an offseason commerce earlier than shoulder surgical procedure finally saved him in San Francisco on a revamped contract. He began 10 video games for the Niners that 12 months after a clumsy coaching camp wherein he rehabbed on a facet discipline.

That scenario, in fact, is vastly totally different than this one, regardless of York’s phrases a few attainable reconciliation and the way the Niners’ additions of veteran receivers Mike Evans and Christian Kirk Could assist Aiyuk reintegrate into the locker room.

“I think we’re making sure that that room is what it needs to be,” York mentioned. “And if BA’s part of that room, we’re going to be more talented, and I have no problem with that.”

Of course, even when the Niners did reverse course and try and keep Aiyuk, there is no assure he’d even be open to such an association.

All of which nonetheless factors to Aiyuk and the Niners parting methods in the coming weeks or months, as questions of when and the way they proceed to loom.