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Nick Wagoner, ESPN Staff Writer
SANTA CLARA, Calif. — As the San Francisco 49ers reported for training camp Tuesday, general manager John Lynch again reiterated that wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk remains in the team’s plans despite his recent trade request.
“We fully intend on Brandon being a Niner moving forward,” Lynch said. “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.”
After an offseason of contract negotiations that have yet to yield a lucrative contract extension, Aiyuk formally requested a trade last week, sources confirmed to ESPN. But the Niners have been steadfast in their position that they want to keep Aiyuk in 2024 and beyond.
Sources told ESPN’s Adam Schefter that other teams have reached out to the Niners only to be told that they have no interest in trading him. Lynch and coach Kyle Shanahan hammered that point home again Tuesday as they answered about 10 minutes’ worth of questions about the star receiver.
At the top of that list is Aiyuk’s status as the team opens camp. At the time Lynch and Shanahan spoke to the media, players still had about an hour before they were expected to report. Aiyuk did report to training camp later Tuesday, a source told ESPN.
Lynch added that the Niners expected all of their players to report for camp. Aiyuk, who is entering the fifth and final year of his rookie contract, would be subject to fines if he did not report for training camp, though those could be forgiven by the team.
If Aiyuk does report for camp, he could theoretically be a “hold-in” which means he could attend meetings but avoid participating in practice until his contract situation is resolved. Fellow wideout Deebo Samuel Sr. opted for that path for the first few days of camp in 2022 before agreeing to an extension on July 31.
Asked whether Aiyuk would practice at camp, Lynch said “we expect all our players to practice.”
Extended contract stalemates aren’t unusual in 49ers-land. In addition to Samuel in 2022, defensive end Nick Bosa held out for all of last year’s training camp and didn’t agree to a deal until Sept. 6, just days before the regular-season opener.
Both Samuel and Bosa have lamented the distraction that the contract situations created and pointed to it as reasons for having seasons below their standards once they were resolved.
In Aiyuk’s case, that could be harmful for a Niners team coming off a narrow overtime loss in Super Bowl LVIII and desperately seeking to break through for its sixth Lombardi Trophy.
“An NFL is season real hard,” Shanahan said. “So, anytime you don’t really get prepared the right way in training camp, it’s a challenge for all those players and tons of players have gone through it. Some have bigger challenges than others. Each one’s different … It never helps but it’s something that’s not a new thing.”
All of which is why the Niners would like to get Aiyuk signed to an extension sooner rather than later. On Tuesday, Lynch repeatedly pointed to the team’s track record of getting its stars re-signed. They’ve done a big-money deal with a top player in each of the past four seasons — tight end George Kittle in 2020, linebacker Fred Warner in 2021, Samuel in 2022 and Bosa in 2023 — and each of those deals got done in the later parts of summer.
A deal for Aiyuk, however, has proved a bit more difficult, Lynch acknowledged Tuesday. This offseason alone, Aiyuk has watched other top receivers such as the Philadelphia Eagles‘ A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith, the Detriot Lions’ Amon-Ra St. Brown and the Miami Dolphins‘ Jaylen Waddle sign top-of-market deals averaging between $25 million to $32 million per season. Minnesota Vikings wideout Justin Jefferson took it a step further, becoming the highest-paid non-quarterback in the league with an average of $35 million per season.
On paper, those deals would seem to have helped fix the price for Aiyuk, who is set make $14.124 million in 2024. But there still hasn’t been much progress toward a deal.
“I’m not going to get into the specifics,” Lynch said. “There’s certainly markets that happen and developments that happen that affect [it] … We put our best foot forward but both sides have to come and agree. We haven’t been able to do that yet. And so, where that goes, we’ll see.”
At various points this offseason, Aiyuk has attempted to coax the Niners into paying him. In terms of timing, that approach worked to some extent as Lynch admitted Tuesday that the team began negotiations with Aiyuk sooner than they traditionally have with other players who signed late in the summer.
Aiyuk has used social media to voice his displeasure via emojis and a few weeks ago posted a video to TikTok of him telling former Arizona State teammate and current Washington Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels that the Niners “don’t want me back.”
The 49ers do want Aiyuk back, but they still don’t know how that could look if and when it gets done. Even the always-optimistic Lynch offered uncertainty about how it will play out in the days and weeks to come.
“I always want to be optimistic,” Lynch said. “This has been a tough one. I think it’s been hard to find that common [ground], as evidenced by us not having a deal in place when we both have tried. We’re going to continue to work towards finding resolution and [we’re] not optimistic, not pessimistic, just going to keep attacking and trying to find the right endpoint for each of us.”
Also on Tuesday, Lynch announced that rookie wideout Ricky Pearsall suffered a hamstring injury that landed him on the non-football injury list and is expected to keep him out for at least the first four practices of camp.
Safety Talanoa Hufanga (knee), linebacker Dre Greenlaw (Achilles) and defensive end Drake Jackson (knee) will also open camp on the physically unable to perform list. Tight end George Kittle (core muscle surgery), cornerback Charvarius Ward (core muscle surgery) and center Jake Brendel (knee tendinitis) have been cleared to return after missing the offseason program, though they will be eased back into practice, according to Shanahan.
