49ers’ Deebo Samuel is confident teammate Brandon Aiyuk won’t be traded. What does he know?
Despite the fact that his teammate’s standoff with the team has been ‘the’ story of the NFL preseason, the wide receiver believes he won’t be going anywhere.
Will he stay or will he go? Those are the two questions that have been on the minds of football fans since the San Francisco 49ers’ Brandon Aiyuk began holding out for a better deal from the franchise. To hear his teammate and fellow wide receiver tell it, Aiyuk will be staying in the Bay Area such that there is no need to worry about his departure.
Deebo Samuel is confident that Brandon Aiyuk is staying put
Brandon Aiyuk’s situation has become more complex with each passing day. As you would have seen in our previous report, The San Francisco 49ers were said to have a trade option in place with the Pittsburgh Steelers but there had been no green light. Then, earlier this week other reports suggested that the Niners had in fact offered Aiyuk a new deal but it had not been accepted, leaving the possibility that he could move to the Steelers, assuming the franchise could meet his demands. This brings us to the comments of Aiyuk’s teammate and fellow wide receiver, Deebo Samuel, who appeared to put all speculation to bed during a recent appearance on the ‘Up & Adams show.’
Asked by Kay Adams on Friday if the 49ers could win a Super Bowl title without Aiyuk on board and Samuel left no doubt as to how he believed the whole scenario would play out, explaining that there was no need to envision such a scenario to begin with. “Can we win a Super Bowl without BA?” Samuel asked himself on the Up & Adams show. “I think BA is going to be a part of this team so we don’t have to worry about that.” For the purpose of context, it should be said that Aiyuk has led the 49ers in receiving yards for the last two consecutive seasons. In 2023, he caught 75 passes for a career-high 1,342 yards and seven touchdowns while earning the first All-Pro nod of his career.
That said, any football fan will know that nothing is ever certain in the NFL. To that end, there is still the possibility that a deal with the 49ers does not work out and the same an be said for the Steelers. After all, we can safely assume that Aiyuk is looking for the kind of deal we’ve seen wide receivers like Justin Jefferson receiving in recent months i.e., a minimum of $35 million per year. Of course, should both of those possible contracts fall through, we’ve also got the Cleveland Browns and New England Patriots waiting in the wings as previously reported.
Indeed, ESPN’s Adam Schefter also indicated on Friday that both teams are still hopeful of agreeing terms with Aiyuk. Ultimately, it remains unclear as to what comes next but we do know this isn’t the first time that the 49ers have sought to drag out contract negotiations. Ironically, the franchise did the same thing with Samuel in 2022 before finally agreeing to a new deal and also with Nick Bosa just last year. With that, it may be that Samuel knows exactly what he’s talking about when it comes to Aiyuk’s future. Stay tuned.