The NFL’s ballooning salary cap, which will be set at $255.4 million this coming season, could help the 49ers extend wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk’s contract, and general manager John Lynch strongly endorsed that Tuesday from the NFL Scouting Combine.
“That was a welcome sight the cap was going up,” Lynch said of the cap’s increase of $30 million per team. “It was going up for everyone, so it’s not unique to our team. We have some challenges. We have lot of good players. A lot of good players who we’ve rewarded. Brandon is one we think incredibly highly of.”
Aiyuk is slated to finish out his rookie deal on a $14 million, fifth-year option, though an extension is a more likely route for 2024 than a potential offseason trade.
“He’s one of my favorite guys around our building, the way he approaches the game,” Lynch told reporters in Indianapolis. “He’s a competitior. He’s a warrior. He plays with such a physicality, also with grace the way some of the oositions his body can get into. And he has a flare for making plays when it matters most. He’s served us very well as a franchise.”
Aiyuk, after his second straight 1,000-yard season, had just three catches in each of the 49ers’ three playoff games, including their Super Bowl LVIII loss to the Kansas City Chiefs. He is next in line for what’s been an annual reward of homegrown talent by the 49ers, with extensions previously awarded to Arik Armstead (2020), George Kittle (2020), Fred Warner (2021), Kyle Juszczyk (2021), Trent Williams (2021), Deebo Samuel (2022), and, Nick Bosa (2023).
“We have a nice track record of extending players that are important to us, and Brandon is a guy we want to keep around for a long time,” Lynch added.
Only two weeks ago, Lynch and coach Kyle Shanahan gave a state-of-the-franchise address, two days after the 25-22 overtime loss in the Super Bowl.
Shanahan, for the third straight season, is not attending the scouting combine, though he can follow through the team’s video meetings while he adjusts his coaching staff. Shanahan has yet to announce a replacement at defensive coordinator following Steve Wilks’ one-season tenure.
Here are other topics Lynch covered in his 15-minute media session:
Defensive coordinator impact
Shanahan has yet to name a successor at defensive coordinator, two weeks after firing Steve Wilks.
How might that impact Lynch’s plans to build the roster?
“We have a great idea who we’re going to be and continue to be and the things we believe in,” Lynch said. “Is it important? Sure. We’re working toward that, Kyle is working toward that. It will come in due time. We want to be true to the process and learn a lot from it. Identify some of the changes and tweaks we want to make while still staying true to our core.”
Settling in at quarterback
Three years after moving up in the draft to select Trey Lance at No. 3, and over a year removed from Brock Purdy’s emergence, the 49ers are in a happy place, knowing that Purdy is fully recovered from last spring’s elbow repair and capable of leading them to title contention.
“It’s a nice feeling, having stability at that position,” Lynch said. “People forget last year was Brock’s first full year as a starter. That leaves you feeling pretty good about his opportunity with what we’ve already seen in a couple of years. Last year, he was coming off the injury. We’re past that. It just gives you a lot of confidence going in.
“Now it’s likely we’re kind of building around him. It gives you a foundation to build off, and that’s a really good feeling, a settling feeling.”
As for why it’s so hard to find a quarterback, Lynch noted the variables between college and pro schematics. “What you do know is if you draft a good one or find a good one, you have a lot better chance to be successful,” Lynch added. “It could happen early, it could happen with the last pick of the draft. When you have one, your team is a lot better and your chance to win goes up substantially.”
Restocked draft picks
After a two-year absence from the first round (by virtue of trading away those picks to Miami as part of the move to get Lance), the 49ers are slated to pick No. 31 overall, in the first of 11 expected draft picks.
“We’ve got a first-round pick for the first time in a long while. That’s nice. We focus on making them all count,” Lynch said. “They all have an opportunity to improve your organization. We put as much pride into the late rounds as the early ones.”
Praising Ji’Ayir Brown
Safety Ji’Ayir Brown went from being a third-round pick last year — and first in the 49ers’ draft class — to a Super Bowl starter who intercepted Patrick Mahomes just after halftime.
“I was real proud of Ji’Ayir,” Lynch said. “… He didn’t pout when he wasn’t playing. He went and excelled at special teams. He sat back and never wasted a day lamenting a day he wasn’t starting. He picked their brain (of safeties Tashaun Gipson and Talanoa Hufanga) to learn, so when he got his opportunity, he could shine. … He got a pick in the Super Bowl. The guy’s a stud and we’re fortunate to have him.”
Personnel department moves
Tariq Ahmad will have a bigger role in the draft but share the title of Director of Player Personnel with R.J. Gillen as Lynch reorganizes his personnel department, in the wake of former assistant GM Adam Peters leaving to become the Washington Commanders’ general manager. Ahmad previously served as the Director of College Scouting; Gillen was the Director of Pro Personnel and has been with the team for nine seasons.
Peters eyes next Purdy
Entrusted with the NFL Draft’s No. 2 pick as the Commanders’ general manager, Peters can lean on his past seven seasons in the 49ers’ personnel department, and, specifically, the pre-draft analysis two years of Brock Purdy, who was taken with the 262nd and final pick in 2022.
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“If we thought he was that good, we probably wouldn’t have waited until the last pick. But, no, we liked him that much,” Peters told reporters. “Now I’ve got to find a new quarterback.” Sam Howell, a 2022 fifth-round pick, was the Commanders’ starter last season, and Peters noted he getting to know Howell this month as they went for a walk around the team’s practice fields. There was a process to getting to know Purdy, too.
“He was always composed, like he is now. He’s the same guy every day. His tape was what really turned us on, then you meet the person,” Peters added. “This (combine) is only a little part of the process. But everything he did at Iowa State and how well he played the position, we really thought he could fit in really well with our scheme.”
Seahawks’ new ideas
The newest coach to the NFC West is Mike Macdonald, who left his post as the Baltimore Ravens’ defensive coordinator to succeed Pete Carroll after his 14-year run as the Seattle Seahawks’ coach.
John Schneider, the Seahawks’ general manager, said: “To see him put his staff together, it’s been exciting. It’s been eye-opening. We learned a lot through the whole process. A lot of lessons and new ideas. We’re just getting to know each other. It’s crazy, 15 years ago, Pete and I were here together and it doesn’t seem that long ago, trying to get to know each other and understand each other’s philosophies.” Macdonald, like Shanahan, is among the 12 coaches not slated to speak at the combine.