5 questions 49ers need to ask and answer before training camp

Minicamp is over. Now begins the roughly 40 day wait until training camp. In that time, the 49ers will have some questions to ask themselves and, ideally, find the answers to.

Here are five questions the 49ers should be asking.

Will Brandon Aiyuk be extended (and how long will he hold out)?
This has been the question of the 49ers’ offseason, and it’s an issue which shows little sign of abating. Brandon Aiyuk deserves to be paid monstrously, but the 49ers are notoriously tough in contract negotiations.

That said, the 49ers almost always get a deal done. But they also wait a little longer than they probably should to do it.

So, do they get an extension hammered out with Aiyuk in the next 40 or so days, or does it linger into training camp? It feels like there’s a gulf between the sides, and when it comes to the exploding receiver market, it will be about guaranteed and fully guaranteed money.

Aiyuk should be looking for Amon-Ra St. Brown’s roughly $30 million per year figure, but St. Brown actually has less fully guaranteed money ($34.66 million) on his deal than the $41 million fully guaranteed that Deebo Samuel got.

The per-year figures are a bit less important than those guarantees. But given that Aiyuk $14.1 million this season is fully guaranteed and the franchise tag would be nearly $25 million next year, giving him less than $39 million fully guaranteed is disrespectful, in my view. Calvin Ridley got nearly $47 million fully guaranteed. Let's be serious.

Aiyuk is 26, and is the most efficient wide receiver in the NFL. He blocks his tail off and is perhaps the lowest-maintenance star receiver you'll ever find. He should want a minimum of $50 million fully guaranteed.

If I were the 49ers, I'd give Aiyuk the option for a higher potential upside deal with lower guarantees or basically three years almost fully guaranteed at $25 million per year (let's say $64 million fully guaranteed, two franchise tag years plus the fifth-year option at $14 million), and a pair of completely cuttable, play-for-it years at the end that bump up the value, along with the usual litany of void years for cap purposes.

In total, I'd give Aiyuk a 5-year, $134.4 million deal with $80 million in guarantees and $64 million in full guarantees. That puts him a tick over St. Brown in average per year and total value, and beneath Justin Jefferson and A.J. Brown in average per year. In reality, you're locking him up for three years (basically a two-year guaranteed extension) and then giving yourself a wide-open trapdoor in years four and five.

It's $4 million fewer than Brown in total guarantees and $22 million below Jefferson for full guarantees, but second in full guarantees, about $14 million more than Tyreek Hill. Again, Aiyuk is 26, a top-10 receiver who is an elite route runner, blocker and separator. He does more with less than anyone else and comes with a sterling injury history.

The 49ers don't have to, and won't do that. But they got a brutal year from Samuel due to his holdout, and Bosa admitted it affected him to. Aiyuk is your best wide receiver and deserves to get paid. Even with the 49ers' considerable leverage, I wouldn't want this to linger too far into camp. This is a team that almost always pays its A-level talent, and that's no accident. This would be an out-of-character departure from that were they not to pay him.

Is Pearsall good enough to sweat it out with Aiyuk?
The 49ers have leverage from the CBA, but their real leverage is Ricky Pearsall. They will be far more willing to sweat out and squeeze what they can from the Aiyuk negotiations is Pearsall is as advertised.

Coming from someone who has been a longtime advocate of Pearsall’s game, and had him mocked to them before the draft, it’s hard to imagine the 49ers aren’t willing to make Aiyuk sweat a bit more. Pearsall was by far the best receiver the 49ers had in OTAs and Minicamp. Everything you saw on tape showed up. He is just an inch-perfect, violent route runner with high-end athleticism and sticky hands.

The main concern with him has been whether he can play through contact, especially in the middle of routes. That’ll show up more in camp, and he definitely got stopped a few times by Renardo Green and Isaac Yiadom in press situations, but those were pretty equal battles on either side. Those two guys both looked fantastic. If you’re worried about Pearsall’s toughness, go watch any of his Florida tape. His production was mediocre because his scattershot quarterbacks schemed like they were out to get him. He took shots and always seemed to get up quickly.

In short, Pearsall will have to show it with the pads on. But. But! The kid looks just as good as advertised, and the fact that he seems capable of beating man coverage might give the 49ers cause to duke it out with Aiyuk well into training camp.

Is there anyone in the defensive tackle group that can plug gaps in the run game?
There is a ton of tread on the tires of Javon Hargrave and Maliek Collins and neither is a consistent plus run defender. Both have the capacity to be positive run defenders, but they’ve built their value on third downs.

So, can Kalia Davis or undrafted rookie Evan Anderson, or Shakel Brown show that they’re capable of holding a double team, plugging a gap? We shall see. But defensive tackle is a position of monumental concern for a team that showed huge run game deficiencies last season.

If those guys, all of whom are unproven, can’t be off-brand D.J. Jones’ for them, the 49ers need to go get someone who is. Because it’s a problem that will be exploited if they don’t have an answer. I’m not convinced, at least now, the answer is on the roster.

Are Josh Dobbs and Brandon Allen reliable enough backups?
You want to talk about scattershot, look at the 49ers’ quarterbacks. Brandon Allen had a great camp last year, and Josh Dobbs is an athletic, smart quarterback who the 49ers fully guaranteed just north of $2 million to. But both missed a lot of throws in these spring practices

Maybe none of that matters and they look great in camp. But I am not sold on either of them being able to win the 49ers a game against a plus opponent. Now, it’s a backup quarterback. You get what you pay for, and the 49ers didn’t pay much. But no team knows the value of the backup more than them, which is why they sprung for Sam Darnold last year.

As it stands, neither of these quarterbacks look in Darnold’s tier. And despite the fact that both have not-insubstantial guarantees (the $2.25 million for Dobbs and $700,000 to Allen), it might mean more reps than expected for Tanner Mordecai, and some eagled-eyed waiver watchers.  Not drafting someone like Tulane’s Michael Pratt late (went pick 245 to the Packers) could backfire if the 49ers don’t have an in-house answer.

Will they update the banners in their locker room?
Inside the 49ers locker room are two banners for division titles and conference championships which hang over the entrance, on the high wall above the door. The former was updated before last season. The latter has not.

The 49ers have won two conference titles since 2012. Not having those on the banner is maddening. And I might be the only one who cares about this, but if you’re going to have a banner honoring those achievements, you have to update them.

This is #BannerGate. We’ll check back in during training camp to see if anything has changed (I doubt it).