The Las Vegas Raiders have one of the worst wide receiver rooms in the NFL — at least on paper — and the fans and media alike have urged the team to make a trade for a proven starter. For example, 49ers on SI’s Grant Cohn made a case for the Raiders to trade for San Francisco 49ers wideout Brandon Aiyuk, pointing to his connection with head coach Klint Kubiak when he was the Niners’ passing game coordinator back in 2023.
“The Raiders should be all over this because they have no wide receiver,” Cohn said. “But they do have a tight end, a running back, a quarterback, and a play caller. So why not give him a chance to actually compete this year as opposed to just tanking for another year. Get Brandon Aiyuk if he’s available. You could renegotiate his contract. You could do a lot of things, but I think that would make sense for them.”
However, the Raiders should not trade for Aiyuk for a multitude of reasons.
Raiders Must Avoid a Trade for 49ers WR Brandon Aiyuk Amid Recent News
ESPN’s Nick Wagoner, who covers the 49ers, wrote on June 3rd that Brandon Aiyuk was issued a warrant for arrest by the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s office on a misdemeanor charge of exhibition of speeding.
“The warrant is in reference to a video Aiyuk posted to YouTube in December, in which he appears to tape himself from the driver’s seat going well over the posted 40 miles per hour speed limit on a road that runs past Levi’s Stadium, the DA’s office confirmed to ESPN on Wednesday,” Wagoner wrote.
Why would any team want to trade for Aiyuk with that situation developing? Not even that, Aiyuk hasn’t had a solid season since 2023. In 2024, he amassed just 25 catches for 374 yards and zero touchdowns, and missed the entirety of the 2025 season due to a season-ending injury that cut his 2024 season short to just seven games.
The icing on the cake is that 49ers general manager John Lynch publicly stated after the end of the 2026 season that Aiyuk will not return to the 49ers. “I think it’s safe to say that he’s played his last snap with the Niners,” Lynch said. “It’s unfortunate. A situation that just went awry.”
Even if the 49ers cut Aiyuk, it’s hard to imagine Raiders GM John Spytek will want to pick him up off waivers.
John Spytek Happy With the Wide Receiver Room
It’s hard to be happy about the current group of wide receivers in Las Vegas, but there’s a lot of potential. Potential that gives Spytek the confidence to roll into the 2026 season without making any other additions.
“I like our receiver room,” Spytek said. “I think probably people are going to roll their eyes. I mean everybody loves receivers. This is a question I get from my kids, ‘Dad, like can we have 15 receivers on the roster?’ We live in the fantasy football world. Receiver, receiver, receiver. I value receivers, I do. I really do. But I love Tre Tucker and he’s a good player. And we’re excited about Jalen Nailor and we drafted Jack Bech in the second last year. We have belief in Jack. We drafted Dont’e Thornton in the fourth last year. We believe in him. I’m excited with Malik Benson. We’re not going to force anything.”
The Raiders should continue to focus on what they already have in the building, and trading for someone like Aiyuk would just be a distraction.
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