SANTA CLARA — A balloon payment is coming due on Brandon Aiyuk’s 49ers future.
Next Tuesday, April 1, he’s owed an option bonus of $22.9 million for this coming season, plus a $24.9 million guarantee that will trigger for 2026.
The 49ers can ante up again for the five-year veteran, their most productive target since Brock Purdy took over at quarterback in 2022.
Or they can unload him, a year after trade scenarios were in place to move Aiyuk to the Pittsburgh Steelers, the New England Patriots and the Cleveland Browns, all of whom seem like logical targets once again.
This, however, is not merely a financial decision, even if the 49ers’ roster is getting an extreme makeover with a cost-conscious budget.
Aiyuk is three months into his recovery from right knee reconstruction. The 49ers, as of last week, were still awaiting a progress report from Aiyuk’s checkup with his surgeon, Dr. Neal ElAttrache in Los Angeles.
Aiyuk totaled 374 yards, no touchdowns and 25 catches last season before tearing multiple ligaments in his right knee in a Week 7 game against Kansas City. He had back-to-back 1,000-yard seasons in 2022 and ’23, including a career-high 1,342 yards for the 2023 NFC champs. He then flamboyantly boycotted practices last offseason and training camp until a last-second deal was reached (four years, $120 million).
His contract calls for only $1.17 million in base salary this season, but the April 1 bonus looms. His $23 million signing bonus last season is prorated at $4.6 million over the next four years, thus forming an $18.4 million dead money change on this year’s salary if he’s unloaded.
The 49ers already have $31 million of space eaten up by Deebo Samuel after trading him to the Washington Commanders. There remains $42 million in cap space that is always relative and fluid. More room could be created with extensions for the two players with the highest base salaries, Fred Warner ($17.7 million) and George Kittle ($14.4 million). More room, however, also must be made for Brock Purdy, who’s owed a $5.4 million salary and could command 10 times that amount in an extension currently being negotiated.
General manager John Lynch did not dispute a report last month that teams are inquiring about Aiyuk. “That typically happens with really good players,” Lynch told reporters at the NFL scouting combine.
Last week at Stanford’s pro day, Lynch offered no apologies for the 49ers losing 16 players thus far in free agency.
“The bottom line is you’re always looking years out. As we forecasted, we obviously have some big things coming our way, and you have to clear the requisite room to be able to do that,” Lynch told the Bay Area News Group and The Athletic.
“You don’t want to get to a point where you have to do things to keep your roster afloat. You want to have that flexibility,” Lynch added. “That’s the one thing people should realize: We’ve been really blessed and fortunate that ownership has allowed us to go and last year we had such a good roster that we double-downed and said ‘Let’s go for this thing.’ We pushed kind of all the chips in knowing at some point you’d have to have the reset, and this was the year.”
Will another team push in its chips — money for Aiyuk, draft picks or players in return to the 49ers?
The Browns have been inquiring the past week, according to a social media post by John Frascella, an unaffiliated NFL reporter who last year was the first to claim Aiyuk requested a trade before Aiyuk’s agent refuted that.
The Browns traded last March for a No. 1 wide receiver, and Jerry Jeudy responded with career-high totals of 1,229 yards and 90 receptions, after four seasons in Denver as a 2020 first-round pick (No. 15 overall). Jeudy is due a $1.5 million salary but counts $8 million against the Browns’ cap, which has large chunks earmarked for Myles Garrett, Deshaun Watson, and the upcoming No. 2 overall draft pick, which could be a quarterback to succeed the injured Watson.