At this point, there is no incentive to keep Brandon Aiyuk in the San Francisco 49ers. The receiver declined a $30 million offer from the New England Patriots and no other team apart from the Steelers and the Browns are interested in trading for the receiver. The problem is John Lynch and his squad waited too long to capitalize on the trade opportunities.

Recently, there was a spark about the Steelers verbally agreeing on a trade with the 49ers, but the analysts soon put the claims out. However, Nick Wright reported that the Steelers offered the San Fran team a first-round pick before the draft, and they disagreed. So, after wasting a lot of time and resources, the 49ers are back to square one again. Moreover, Aiyuk might sabotage himself in the future and not play well for the 49ers.

“If it had gotten to the point where they are not trading him, the season is about to start. We would see who would budge. But it was a game of chicken at this point, and he was making it so ugly that they must have realized or at least felt like, ‘you know what, he’s not going to play or if he does play, he’s going to have an attitude or whatever,’” said Broussard on First Things First.

Brandon Aiyuk demanding his perceived market value is not wrong. What’s wrong is the 49ers holding on to him against his wishes. He’s expressed it in the past. Remember that call with Jayden Daniels where he said, “they don’t want me back”? It seems like the Niners are bad at reading the room and don’t know when to stop pursuing a dead end.

The whole First Things First crew was talking about the Steelers verbally agreeing with the 49ers for a trade. However, that turned out to be false. In fact, there’s no solution in sight and the teams haven’t agreed on anything. Shanahan and John Lynch have mentioned over and over that they don’t want to give up Aiyuk. However, it feels like they want to keep him for monetary gains and not because he’s a good receiver.

Recently, McCaffrey referred to Aiyuk as his former teammate and it poured more fuel into the fire. “That’s not part of my job. It’s not part of my position. Obviously, as a former teammate, or teammate of his in general, any teammate you have, you love and respect them. You want the best for them. As far as the business side of this game goes, it’s always difficult. So, I stay out of it completely,” said CMC while speaking to the NFL Network.

It will become clear whether Brock Purdy is a system quarterback or not in this season. Aiyuk was Purdy’s favorite last year, a crucial cog in the machine that got the team to a Super Bowl. However, reaching the Super Bowl seems like a far cry for the Bay Area team now.

Why the 49ers might have a hard time reaching the Super Bowl without Brandon Aiyuk

The major reason is injuries. The other huge players besides Aiyuk are Deebo Samuel and Christian McCaffrey, both of whom have had an injury-riddled past. Samuel suffered a hairline fracture last season, and it kept bothering him. However, he still played in the Super Bowl and powered through. However, he never played a complete season and has always missed out on a game or two.

Another 49ers star, Christian McCaffrey, has a 63.6% chance of injury in 2024, per Draft Sharks. He’s slated to miss three games in the 2024 season. Since the last season, he’s been battling through a calf injury. If that was not enough, he’s injured himself again and will miss out the whole preseason because of a strained calf.

“I just think that it puts a mandate now on all their weapons being healthy whereas if you had lost Deebo, you still had Aiyuk. All that said, they’re still very much a Super Bowl contender,” said Broussard. Note that the 49ers being a Super Bowl contender is conditional and has a lot of variables to it.

Letting go of Aiyuk feels like a gamble at this point, and it’s nothing short of a monumental botch. Aiyuk’s situation is very fluid at this point and has analysts divided. Some say that he’s an exceptional route runner and an immense help to Purdy. On the other hand, some think that it’s simply not true. At this point, it’s advisable to take everything these analysts say with a grain of salt, or maybe the whole shaker.

However, one thing is for sure, if the 49ers wanted to keep Aiyuk, they would. There are myriad ways in which John Lynch could have manipulated the cap space, but the 49ers are a tough bargain. At this point, do you think there’s not much difference between them and the Dallas Cowboys? Let us know in the comments below.