Brandon Aiyuk has officially requested a trade. The only surprising part of that is how long it took to reach this point. A trade request is a hallmark of even semi-sticky contract negotiations, right up there with deleting photos and unfollowing teams on various social media. Deebo Samuel’s request, for example, came before the draft in April. Aiyuk’s didn’t get reported until the middle of July. Despite the late hour of the request, it ultimately doesn’t change much in his negotiation with San Francisco.
While Aiyuk has now made his displeasure with the lack of movement on negotiations public in a new way, the 49ers still hold virtually all of the cards.
San Francisco wants to operate on a timeline where this deal is getting done closer to training camp. That’s slated to begin a little more than a week after the trade request became public, which means it’s high time for the 49ers front office to return to the negotiating table and get serious about hammering out an extension.
The problem for Aiyuk is he doesn’t have many options for combatting this strategy by the team. He’s under contract for the 2024 season. A year-long holdout doesn’t allow a season to accrue, which puts him back in the same spot next offseason. Even if he plays this year on his fifth-year option, the 49ers have the franchise tag to use next offseason.
Of all the potential outcomes here, a trade appears to be the least likely. The 49ers are trying to win a Super Bowl and moving on from Aiyuk makes them dramatically worse. That is, unless a team wants to trade a similar caliber player for him, but those types of trades don’t tend to happen in the NFL. A team aiming to acquire Aiyuk might throw in a lesser player, but they’ll be more willing to unload draft capital which ultimately doesn’t help San Francisco get closer to its goal of winning a Super Bowl this year.
Aiyuk’s trade request will make waves and it’ll make fans of the Commanders and Steelers excited, but the request doesn’t have to be granted and the 49ers don’t have much incentive to do so.
