After months of frustration and anticipation, Brandon Aiyuk and the 49ers come to an agreement.
Yesterday the news broke that the 49ers were extending Aiyuk to a 4-year $120 million deal with $76m guaranteed. This was the first time the news carousel about Aiyuk's situation differed from the many reports of him and the 49ers leaning towards a trade or extension. Many of these insider reports came from an X (formerly Twitter) user named Pretty Rickey whose profile picture was a dog. He was positive that Aiyuk was getting traded to the Steelers, now his X account no longer exists.
Aiyuk's deal is front-loaded with $47 million paid to him through April 1, 2025. It appeared that Aiyuk's hold-in came to a boiling point for John Lynch in a press conference the day before the agreement was made.
Lynch sounded annoyed when asked again about the Aiyuk situation stating, "At some point, you've got to play."
24 hours later the deal got done and Brandon Aiyuk will be a Niner for the forseeable future. Lynch's noticeable frustration with the whole ordeal can be justified. The 49ers had multiple trade packages ready with the Browns, Steelers, and Patriots at one point; Aiyuk refused to sign a contract with each one. He stated he only wanted to be traded to Washington or Pittsburgh. The Commanders did not provide compensation the 49ers were interested in, and the Steelers were not offering a contract that Aiyuk would sign.
On Thursday, Lynch told Aiyuk his two options were to get traded to the Steelers or sign an extension with San Francisco, per Mike Garafolo.
The contract Aiyuk signed was the same offer the 49ers offered him on August 10th, per Adam Schefter. Now Aiyuk has a little more than a week to get game ready before the 49ers' MNF season opener vs. the Jets.
The last task before the season begins for San Francisco is to sign Trent WIlliams--who has held out all offseason to become the highest paid left tackle in the league once again. Now that AIyuk is signed, it would not be a surprise if a deal gets done in the following days.
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