GOOD NEWS: 49ers, Wide receiver reach 4-year, $120M extension
The high-stakes contract negotiations between the San Francisco 49ers and wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk have been an incredible roller coaster trip. However, it has concluded where it all started more than six months ago, with the Niners and Aiyuk remaining partners for the foreseeable future.
According to sources who spoke with ESPN’s Adam Schefter on Thursday, Aiyuk and the Niners reached an agreement on a four-year, $120 million contract deal that will keep him in San Francisco until the 2028 campaign.Schefter was informed by league sources that the 49ers have had this similar contract on the table since August 12.
Aiyuk will receive $47 million of the guaranteed $76 million under the terms of the agreement before April 1, 2025, according to a source who spoke with ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler.
Aiyuk, whose average yearly value is $30 million a season, is the fifth-highest paid receiver in the NFL, behind star Tyreek Hill of the Miami Dolphins.
The agreement follows what may have been the most controversial step in these negotiations thus far: on Wednesday, general manager John Lynch and coach Kyle Shanahan officially pronounced Aiyuk healthy, indicating that they anticipated him to take part in practice.
Due to his lack of practice on Wednesday and Thursday, Aiyuk exposed himself to the potential for team discipline. But the agreement reached on Thursday guarantees that Aiyuk may use the following ten days to be ready for the Sept. 9 opener against the New York Jets.
Before the agreement was completed, the Niners insisted for almost two years that they always planned to re-sign Aiyuk. A lot of people had doubts about that result in the last several weeks because the wideout asked to be traded shortly before training camp began on July 23.
Soon after, the Niners appeared sincere about trading Aiyuk for the first time.
The 49ers and Aiyuk assessed their alternatives in response to the Pittsburgh Steelers, Cleveland Browns, and New England Patriots expressing great interest. A team would need to appease the Niners and Aiyuk’s desires for a large contract extension in order for a deal to work.
While it appeared that each of those teams could check one of those boxes, none were able to do so for both, which aided in getting the Niners and Aiyuk back to the bargaining table to resolve their differences.
The outcome was a long-awaited pact that guarantees the permanence of the Niners’ best wide receiver as San Francisco looks to win the sixth Lombardi Trophy, which the team has missed in four of the previous five seasons.
In addition to having their greatest receiver for a potential Super Bowl run, the Niners can retain him and quarterback Brock Purdy as the core of their offensive line for the next five years.
Aiyuk had a career season in 2023, leading the Niners in receiving yards (1,342) and placing first in yards per target (12.9), second in yards per reception (17.9), and ninth in receiving yards per game (83.9) in the NFL. He was also selected to the second team All-Pro roster. The Niners may open the season with the same offensive lineup thanks to his comeback, which would allow Aiyuk to partner with wideouts Jauan Jennings and Deebo Samuel as rookies Ricky Pearsall and Jacob Cowing grow.
Naturally, it took a lot of effort and patience for both parties to get to this stage. In February, shortly after the 49ers’ defeat in Super Bowl LVIII, Aiyuk declared that he would remain in San Francisco “if it was the right move.”
In response to a question about what that would entail, Aiyuk responded, “being a champion.”
After Lynch emphasized during the league meetings in March that the team wanted to pay Aiyuk, things seemed to get more heated from there. Aiyuk responded to such remarks by uploading a sequence of emojis to his Instagram story that means “money talks, bulls— walks.”
The NFL draft in April provided yet another significant benchmark for the talks. Lynch and Shanahan were quite clear at the moment that they still wanted to be with Aiyuk and that they would listen to calls on their receiver like they would any other player.
“I’ve communicated on many occasions: our wish is that he’s here and part of the Niners for the rest of his career,” Lynch said in April. “We are addressing that…. We’re having productive conversations, so I’ll just say that.
That’s why bringing Aiyuk back to San Francisco was always going to be necessary in any trade involving him. No negotiations were ever finalized during draft weekend, and Lynch and Shanahan reiterated their intention to re-sign Aiyuk despite having used their first-round pick (No. 31 overall) on Pearsall.
The Niners’ decision to draft Pearsall revealed a little about the status of their relationship with Aiyuk, who had a brief playing career with Pearsall at Arizona State. Aiyuk contacted Lynch and Shanahan shortly after the pick, saying, “Fire pick, I can’t lie.”
Aiyuk avoided participating in the team’s offseason program and failed to show up for the full-squad minicamp in early June, which resulted in fines totaling more than $101,000 and a temporary impasse in the negotiations.
Meanwhile, several wide receivers in the league signed lucrative contracts:
