With the franchise tag deadline having passed and the start of free agency less than a week away, the NFL rumour mill has begun to crank up.
Plenty of deals will be done over the next few weeks in free agency, while the trade market will also be a hive of activity as teams look to reload their rosters for the 2024 season.
The San Francisco 49ers will be looking to go one better next season following their heartbreaking overtime Super Bowl defeat to the Kansas City Chiefs last season. And while their roster will not be too heavily impacted by free agency departures this offseason, the future of wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk will be a talking point.
After earning second-team All-Pro honours for a campaign that saw him catch 75 passes for 1,342 yards and seven touchdowns last season, Aiyuk will be entering the final year of his rookie contract in 2024, meaning he is due for a contract extension.
Many pundits have mooted the idea that the receiver could be a potential trade candidate if the two parties cannot agree on a deal that fits in with the 49ers’ salary cap plans, but Aiyuk’s fellow Niners wideout Deebo Samuel does not see that happening.
“The season that’s he’s just come off and the seasons previous, I mean if you look at his numbers from when he got to the league and now it’s always a different type of leap,” Samuel told the Up & Adams Show on Tuesday.
“I told him, I said, ‘You’ve put yourself in the position to be who you want to be’. He’s up for a new deal and things like that and I just told him that I’ve been through it. It’s not going to be all fine and dandy like you think it’s going to be. You’ve got to stay the course. You know you did everything possible for you to be in this position and just let everything play out."
"I love that guy,” he added. “I don't see him leaving though, I don’t see him leaving.”
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