San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk has requested a trade since there’s been no progress with a long-term contract extension, according to a league source.

Aiyuk, 26, is entering the final year of his five-year rookie contract. He’s coming off a 2023 season in which he tallied 75 receptions for 1,342 yards and seven touchdowns. In his four-year career, all with San Francisco, Aiyuk has tallied 269 receptions for 3,931 yards and 25 TDs.

The No. 25 pick in the 2020 NFL Draft, Aiyuk elevated his play in 2022 as Brock Purdy rose to become one of the better quarterbacks in the league. Aiyuk eclipsed the 1,000-yard mark in 2022 with 78 receptions for 1,015 yards and eight touchdowns.

Aiyuk has been an important piece of an impressive skill position core, along with Christian McCaffrey, Deebo Samuel and George Kittle. But the 49ers drafted wideout Ricky Pearsall in the first round in this year’s draft making Aiyuk’s future past the 2024 season tenuous. Aiyuk currently carries a $14.1 million salary cap figure into this season.

In a lot of ways, the Aiyuk contract saga mirrors that of Samuel from two years ago. Both receivers were coming off career-best seasons, both used social media to voice their frustration with negotiations and both requested a trade.

The difference is that Samuel’s trade request came early in the offseason and that by the time 2022 training camp rolled around, a contract was in sight. Samuel didn’t take part in the mandatory, June minicamp that year. But he was on site for the practices, tossing footballs back and forth with Kyle Shanahan’s son. That is, the vibe — which had been decidedly gloomy in the early spring — had brightened by June.

The Aiyuk situation, meanwhile, has been consistently unhappy and unproductive. The 49ers made a contract offer, believed to be for $26 million in early May, and nothing much has changed since. Now, a week before Aiyuk and the 49ers veterans are due to report for training camp, Aiyuk has requested a trade.

Timing here is key. Veterans report to training camp in a week, so Aiyuk faces a deadline of sorts in his quest to secure a new long-term contract — because any holdout that lasts into next week would be subject to fines. So Aiyuk is incentivized to use all tools at his disposal, including this trade request, to encourage movement in the matter.

The problem for Aiyuk is that the 49ers are not obligated to respond, and they might not even be incentivized to, either. Aiyuk is already under contract at a favorable rate for them in 2024 — $14.1 million.

Perhaps the 49ers want to avoid contractual drama from extending into training camp like it did over the past two seasons with Samuel and Nick Bosa. Theoretically, Aiyuk’s maneuver can incentivize them to hasten negotiations or slightly sweeten their offer to the receiver to resolve matters more quickly.

But the bottom line is that the team holds the cards here. They haven’t broadcasted a particular willingness to trade Aiyuk — how could the 49ers possibly benefit from doing so at this point? — and their best option in this game of chicken is waiting for Aiyuk to blink.

This article originally appeared in The Athletic.

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