Fred Warner on Brandon Aiyuk ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/ycERMGMVNq
— 95.7 The Game (@957thegame) July 23, 2024
Brandon Aiyuk’s contract extension was one of the 49ers’ biggest offseason priorities. It still isn’t done just one day shy of the club’s veterans reporting to the team facility for training camp. By most accounts this is some level of mess for San Francisco and their All-Pro wide receiver. Veteran linebacker Fred Warner is choosing to take a different view.
In an interview with Willard and Dibs on 95.7 the Game in San Francisco, Warner said the Aiyuk contract talks are just the reality good teams face.
“When you’re part of such a talented roster this is something that goes on every season,” Warner said via 95.7 the Game. “It’s a good issue to have because it means your players are performing at such a high level.”
This is true. A league with a hard salary cap like the NFL makes team-building especially difficult when a team drafts and develops, or acquires, so many great players.
Warner, Nick Bosa, George Kittle, Trent Williams, Christian McCaffrey, Kyle Juszczyk, Javon Hargrave and Deebo Samuel are all getting paid at or near the top of the market at their positions.
Now it’s Aiyuk’s turn to get paid a contract that puts him at or near the top of the wide receiver market. The problem is the 49ers also have a massive extension looming for quarterback Brock Purdy.
The machinations of all this matter less than Warner’s overall point that this Aiyuk situation stems from the 49ers having so many good players. Massaging the cap and maneuvering to find room for all that talent is extremely difficult, but it’s a much better problem to have to solve than simply finding any kind of talent.
Ideally for the 49ers they’ll continue to have this problem in the future since acquiring more good players to replace some of the ones they’ll inevitably lose will be required to keep their Super Bowl window open.
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