The 49ers still haven’t figured out what they want to do with Brandon Aiyuk.
They say they want to extend his contract, but they haven’t done so yet. And they continue to have trade talks with other teams according to The Athletic’s Dianna Russini.
“There are thoughts that this could be a three-team trade,” said Russini on her podcast. “Because the San Francisco 49ers are open to trading Brandon Aiyuk. But in order to trade Aiyuk, they would like to get a premier player back, a receiver specifically. Pittsburgh is not giving that up. So where are they going to get one? Maybe there’s a world where the 49ers can trade Aiyuk to the Steelers, get some draft picks back and then go use some of those picks to trade with another team to get the receiver that they’re looking for.
“There are a lot of different reasons for the holdup. Let’s start with the player. From what I was told, the player hasn’t really been easy to work with in terms of what he wants. He seems to be a little all over the place. Then you have the 49ers. If they were going to deal Aiyuk, why would they not do this around the draft? Why would they not do this earlier? Now they’re a few weeks away from the season, they’re so injured that they’re canceling joint practices with the Saints because they don’t have enough guys. It has been a really, really tough summer for the 49ers.”
The 49ers most likely are targeting a deep threat who already knows Kyle Shanahan’s offensive system so he can play right away. I’m guessing not many wide receivers who fit that description are currently available, hence the hold-up.