We’ve entered the month of July and the 49ers still don’t have a contract hammered out with wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk. That’s not a huge surprise given their typical timeline on these deals. That same logic applies to a recent report from NFL Media’s Mike Garafolo that indicated San Francisco and their All-Pro WR aren’t any closer to a deal than they were prior to Aiyuk’s meeting with the team at the end of June.
Garafolo in an appearance on NFL Network’s ‘The Insiders’ said the two sides aren’t closer to a deal, but it also doesn’t sound like they’re drifting further apart.
“For Aiyuk and the 49ers, they had conversations recently,” Garafolo said via 49ers Webzone. “They are no closer to a deal from my understanding, but they are also no closer to a trade request. That’s never been something that he has explored in this case. Besides, he’s got to get back to work sometime before training camp to see if they can get something done.”
Aiyuk’s meeting with the 49ers clearly wasn’t one last chance to hammer out a contract. Reporting about the meeting indicated it was a chance for both sides to say some things that needed to be said after a handful of public reports about the negotiations.
Generally the timeline for the 49ers on these deals has them ironed out closer to the start of training camp, if not a handful of days into camp.
If there’s an agreement to be reached it would likely be closer to that point in late July. With a few weeks until veterans report to camp, it makes sense the two sides haven’t been working toward some kind of middle ground in early July. If it gets to July 23 when veterans report and Aiyuk and the 49ers are still far apart — there’ll be some cause for concern. Until that point though this train appears to be following the same track their other long-term contract negotiations have.
