The 49ers’ way of doing business might be a bit anxiety-inducing for fans. As other wide receivers have signed big contracts this offseason, San Francisco has calmly acted upon their usual soft deadline of training camp. They’ve operated this way throughout the Kyle Shanahan-John Lynch era, and as of mid-June there’s no real reason to believe the Brandon Aiyuk contract situation is any different.
San Francisco has gotten high-priced, long-term extensions done with wide receiver Deebo Samuel, tight end George Kittle, linebacker Fred Warner and defensive end Nick Bosa over the last few offseasons. There are other big contracts in there, but these are the team’s drafted players who have earned sizable deals at or near the top of the market for their second contract.
Kittle’s extension was first reported on August 13, 2020. Warner got his big deal the following year, and that was first reported July 21. Reports of Samuel’s deal in the 2022 offseason came down July 31. Bosa is the outlier because he held out until the week the regular season kicked off in early September, but nevertheless he got a contract that at the time made him the highest-paid non-quarterback in NFL history.
It’s easy to point to recent reports of Aiyuk’s pessimism, or that the 49ers aren’t indicating that they’ll rescind fines for missed practices and surmise that there’s something extraordinary going on with these particular negotiations. Never mind that Samuel outright requested a trade and while the Jets were on the clock with the No. 10 pick in the 2022 draft there was real speculation that the pick would be dealt to the 49ers in exchange for the All-Pro wide receiver. Alas, the fever broke and Samuel eventually got his deal.
One outlier here is that the other WRs who would be setting the market have almost all done their contracts already. Lions WR Amon-Ra St. Brown, Dolphins WR Jaylen Waddle, Eagles WRs DeVonta Smith and AJ Brown, and Vikings WR Justin Jefferson have all gotten their proverbial bags. Aiyuk and CeeDee Lamb, both first-round picks in 2020 and entering the final year of their rookie contracts, are the only two big-time receivers left without extensions.
Perhaps there’s some kind of waiting game with that duo to see which of them sets the market below Jefferson, who earned a four-year deal worth up to $140 with $110 million guaranteed from Minnesota in early June.
The more likely scenario is that the 49ers are following their typical path where they don’t feel any urgency in mid-June while players are away from the team with nothing substantial happening on the NFL calendar until late July when training camp begins.
Bosa last season was an outlier because his deal was a little more complicated given the scale of the contract. The reigning Defensive Player of the Year received a five-year, $170 million contract with $122.5 million guaranteed. It was the largest non-QB contract ever, and thus might have required more back-and-forth.
With Aiyuk things are a little less sticky. There’s a very clear range he should be landing with lots of contracts from comparable players to go off of. And it’s hard to believe the 49ers weren’t anticipating that level of contract when they chose not to trade the All-Pro WR during the draft.
There’s certainly still some negotiating to do, and it may get more publicly volatile in the weeks leading up to training camp. That’s not out of the ordinary for the 49ers though and the delay with Aiyuk is the same delay every other player who got a big extension from the team had to endure.
Perhaps Aiyuk or the 49ers are being wholly unrealistic and we see a rare case where San Francisco botches an extension on a budding star player. Until that happens though their track record remains far stronger than not in this area, and that’s an important thing to remember as the negotiations continue to unfold.
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