San Francisco 49ers make decision on $120m star receiver Brandon Aiyuk ahead of NFL Draft

The San Francisco 49ers will owe star wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk a $22.85 million roster bonus if he’s still on the team by Tuesday.

Now, with both that deadline and April’s NFL Draft rapidly approaching, the team has reportedly decided to keep the 27-year-old.

ESPN’s Adam Schefter is reporting that without any unforeseen developments, Aiyuk will not be traded before Tuesday’s deadline. DailyMail.com has reached out to the team for confirmation.

The 49ers traded Aiyuk’s teammate and fellow receiver Deebo Samuel to the Washington Commanders earlier this offseason. And with San Francisco already nearing the 2025 salary cap of $279.2 million, many had speculated Aiyuk could follow Samuel out the door.

That speculation had been further fueled by a deep class of wide receivers in next month’s NFL Draft, where the 49ers have the 11th pick of the first round.

Now, with Aiyuk staying, 24-year-old receiver Ricky Pearsall seems like an obvious choice to replace Samuel after his own rookie season was interrupted by the gunshot wound he suffered on the San Francisco streets in August. Pearsall did return to make 31 catches over 11 games. 

Aiyuk was a second-team All-Pro in 2023 as the 49ers earned a Super Bowl berth, but staged a walkout the following offseason.

Ultimately he and the team agreed to a four-year, $120 million extension in late August. Unfortunately for him, and the injury-plagued 49ers, Aiyuk had just 25 catches for 374 yards over seven games before suffering a season-ending knee injury on October 20.

Last month, 49ers GM John Lynch issued an encouraging update on Aiyuk’s rehabilitation.

‘He’s doing well,’ Lynch told media at the NFL Draft Combine in Indianapolis. ‘I know coming up here in a couple weeks, there’s kind of a big marker coming up.

‘[Dr. Neal] ElAttrache does a big test at some point, I forget how many weeks out, and that’s coming up.

‘I know that anecdotally, he’s doing really well,’ Lynch continued. ‘Our trainers who have been with him say he’s doing very well. He’s putting in the work, that’s what you have to do. And like I’ve always said, the real top end athletes tend to heal at a little faster rate and I think that’s going on with Brandon as well.’

To many, the 49ers are a team at a crossroads after losing Aiyuk and running back Christian McCaffrey for most of the year.

And while tight end George Kittle did have another strong season, he is less than a year removed from surgery on an abdomen muscle and entering his ninth NFL season at age 31.

The NFL Draft, meanwhile, offers a number of potential targets for quarterback Brock Purdy, including receivers like Arizona’s Tetairoa McMillan or Texas’ Matthew Golden, as well as several tiers of tight ends, such as Penn State’s Tyler Warren and LSU’s Mason Taylor.