San Francisco 49ers face major decision

The San Francisco 49ers are in a bit of a prediction regarding the future of their wide receiver position as star wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk has requested a trade from the team. But the Niners could choose to respond to that trade request in a surprising way: by trading a different player.

As Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk suggests, the San Francisco 49ers could trade wide receiver Deebo Samuel instead of Brandon Aiyuk, especially considering that Aiyuk outperformed Samuel last year.

“With the 49ers now facing a formal trade request from Aiyuk, one potential path out of the maze would include trading Deebo and paying Aiyuk as the team’s WR1,” Florio wrote.

“Frankly, Aiyuk performed like the team’s WR1 last year. Even though he had only 105 targets in 16 regular-season games last year, Deebo had only 89 in 15. As to receptions, Aiyuk had 75 for 1,342 yards. Deebo had 60 for 892.”

As Florio explains, trading Samuel would allow the team space on the salary cap to offer a new, market-value contract to keep Aiyuk for the long run, instead of Samuel.

Obviously, it’s a sticky situation for the Niners and it will certainly be interesting to see how they navigate it.

(Pro Football Talk)