49ers giving Brandon Aiyuk every opportunity to find a better deal with significant change in stance
Having stuck to the position that Brandon Aiyuk would be going nowhere throughout the offseason, the stance inside the San Francisco 49ers organization has changed, and it has changed even more drastically than was thought on Monday. Following a report from NBC Sports Bay Area's Matt Maiocco that the Niners had given Aiyuk permission to […]
Having stuck to the position that Brandon Aiyuk would be going nowhere throughout the offseason, the stance inside the San Francisco 49ers organization has changed, and it has changed even more drastically than was thought on Monday.
Following a report from NBC Sports Bay Area's Matt Maiocco that the Niners had given Aiyuk permission to speak to four potential trade partners and agreed the frameworks of a deal with the Cleveland Browns and New England Patriots, ESPN's Mike Reiss reported on Tuesday that San Francisco is now open to taking calls from other teams interested in Aiyuk.
That is a marked contrast from last month when Aiyuk first submitted his trade request, when it was reported the 49ers would not entertain trade offers for their leading wide receiver from each of the last two seasons.
And it is a change in position that probably reflects a lack of progress on the part of Aiyuk in talks over a contract with the Browns and Patriots, and potentially a lack of desire to join either of those teams.
A post from ESPN's Adam Schefter on X (formerly Twitter) pointed to the Browns and Patriots failing to satisfy Aiyuk's demands.
Schefter wrote: "This is not a simple trade to execute. Any interested team would have to meet the asking price of Brandon Aiyuk and the 49ers. It’s easy to meet one of those conditions but considerably more complicated to meet both. So far, no one has been able to do it."
In other words, there's no sign of a deal with either Cleveland or New England, so the 49ers are inviting other teams to potentially expand Aiyuk's horizons beyond those teams.
But, as Schefter said, that still doesn't mean a deal is likely, and the number of hurdles required to overcome to make a trade happen may lead Aiyuk to ultimately decide that he is better off staying with San Francisco.
As I have written already this week, there's a scenario in which that was the goal of the 49ers by taking this step. The Niners' attitude towards an Aiyuk trade has changed, but their desired outcome in those long saga likely remains very much the same.
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