For the second consecutive offseason, trading Brandon Aiyuk is an option for the 49ers.
Except this time it is different. Aiyuk's value is dramatically lower than it was last year due to tearing his ACL and MCL.
However, it has been made known that the 49ers hate the extension they gave Aiyuk. He is due a bonus on April 1 that will cost the 49ers $22.8 million.
The 49ers already regret the deal they gave him, so they surely would love to send Aiyuk packing if they can get adequate value in return.
The issue with that is the 49ers will be lucky to get a fourth-round pick. Even that is an unlikely scenario.
Why would anyone want to send a fourth- or fifth-round pick for a receiver coming off a significant knee injury? The 49ers are completely foolish.
Yet, trading Aiyuk isn't unfathomable if their relationship with him is beyond repair. The 49ers may be forced to take whatever they can get to avoid paying a player they dislike his bonus.
If that were to happen, the 49ers will regret it. Trading Aiyuk would be foolish. They have nothing to gain by trading him and so much lose.
What they would gain in a trade will not be worth it. He barely has any value. The 49ers are better off keeping him and seeing if he can return to the high level player that he was.
Otherwise, if they send him packing for a fifth-round pick and he gets back to looking strong again, the 49ers will look like an incompetently frugal team.
Sure, it stings to pay him the bonus when they initially didn't like his extension, especially now that he's coming off a significant knee injury.
However, the 49ers have no one to blame but themselves. They could've got in front of paying Aiyuk more than they needed to, but as usual they took their sweet time.
Aiyuk should be a lesson to not allow contract negotiations to get unnecessarily dragged out.
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