San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk reportedly requested a trade earlier this month, but despite that, he will report to training camp this week, NFL Media's Ian Rapoport and Mike Garafolo reported Tuesday.
Rapoport and Garafolo also reported that "the team has not held extensive contract talks since May."
Aiyuk is entering the final year of his contract. His camp and the 49ers have been unable to work out a contract extension. A fair deal for a wideout of Aiyuk's caliber would be around $25 million or more per season.
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49ers general manager John Lynch was asked Tuesday at a press conference about Aiyuk's situation. He did not completely rule out a trade.
"We fully intend on Brandon being a Niner moving forward," Lynch told reporters. "We’re always open to listen to things, but like I said, we expect Brandon to be an integral part of our team like he has been and excited about that.”
The 49ers are firmly in win-now mode. Therefore, it might not make sense for them to trade Aiyuk unless another team is willing to offer the 49ers something that will help them in 2024.
Several teams were reportedly interested in Aiyuk before the 2024 NFL Draft in April, per Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk. Florio reported that one of those teams was the New England Patriots, who offered a second-round pick for Aiyuk. The Patriots still have around $43.5 million in salary cap space, which is the most in the league, per OverTheCap. So they could definitely afford to pay Aiyuk what he wants.
Aiyuk tallied 75 receptions for a career-high 1,342 yards, along with seven touchdowns in 16 games for the 49ers last season. He has posted at least 75 catches, 1,000-plus yards and seven touchdowns in back-to-back seasons. He's a legit No. 1 caliber wideout and still very much in the prime of his career at 26 years old.
The 49ers would be wise to keep him long term, but they already have 11 players with salary cap hits of $9.6 million or more for the 2025 campaign, per Spotrac. It'll be fascinating to watch how this situation between Aiyuk and the 49ers plays out.