Insiders predict if Brandon Aiyuk will play for 49ers after trade request

NFL Media's Ian Rapoport believes Brandon Aiyuk will ultimately play for the San Francisco 49ers this season, even after the unsettled wide receiver requested a trade amid what's become a much-publicized contract standoff.

"Look, it's hard for me to imagine, absent some crazy situation or someone offering them a premium first-round pick, hard to imagine the 49ers actually trade Brandon Aiyuk," Rapoport explained during Tuesday's edition of NFL Network's "The Insiders" program, per David Bonilla of 49ers WebZone. "Mainly because they're a very good team and rarely do very good teams trade very good players right before a season where they're trying to reach the Super Bowl and win it."

Aiyuk remains in the final year of his rookie deal and skipped the club's mandatory minicamp last month, seemingly to prove a point. It was previously thought the two sides could come to some sort of agreement following the Fourth of July holiday. However, NFL Network's Mike Garafolo revealed during "The Insiders" that "the Niners haven't made an offer, from my understanding, according to sources, since May."

Shortly after the news about Aiyuk's trade request broke, ESPN's Adam Schefter reported that the 49ers have "no intention" of making the 26-year-old available to other clubs before the start of the 2024 season. For a piece published Wednesday, David Lombardi of The Athletic wrote that San Francisco's "most likely course of action in this saga" is to "do nothing and wait for Aiyuk to blink" between now and Week 1.

"Think of this as a game of chicken — with the 49ers driving a semi-truck," Lombardi said. "Because Aiyuk is already under contract, they have the high ground here."

Lombardi and others have pointed out that a San Francisco team looking to play in the Super Bowl for a second straight season can use the franchise tag to retain Aiyuk's rights for 2025. That reality gives the club additional leverage regarding negotiations that have seemingly been on hold since the spring.

"Although the league’s collective bargaining agreement (CBA) allows the team to forgive Aiyuk’s $40,000 daily fines for missing training camp, financial penalties would only increase with time," Lombardi added. "On his $14.1M deal, Aiyuk stands to miss out on about $829,000 per game if a holdout lasts into the regular season. The CBA would also allow the 49ers to fine Aiyuk up to that amount for every missed preseason game."

It remains to be seen if Aiyuk is willing to forfeit money by staying away from the 49ers through their regular-season opener versus the New York Jets on Sept. 9. Doing so may be the only way he can convince San Francisco to either trade him or sign him to an extension before 2025.