Analyzing whether the San Francisco 49ers should trade or extend Brandon Aiyuk.
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00:00 Do the Niners trade or extend Brandon Iuke?
00:04 So, Brandon Iuke is the easiest tradable player on the whole roster.
00:14 For a couple reasons.
00:16 He's the easiest to be traded by the 49ers from the standpoint that the $14.1 million
00:22 he makes this year is fully guaranteed fifth year option, which means it goes to the new
00:30 team.
00:31 So they have a zero cap hit if they trade him.
00:33 Also, you're going to get a first round pick for him.
00:36 You look at a team like the Texans that has Cleveland's number one pick this year, I think
00:39 it's like 21.
00:41 That's about what you're going to get for Brandon Iuke.
00:44 And that team makes a lot of sense for Brandon Iuke.
00:47 So I think from that standpoint, it's much easier to trade Brandon Iuke.
00:52 It's much easier to swallow trading him because you're going to get more for him and you're
00:55 not going to take a cap hit.
00:57 However, with this offseason strategy that we've talked about, we're already getting
01:02 rid of Devo Samuel.
01:05 Absolutely not getting rid of Brandon Iuke.
01:07 Extending him is still going to save about $10.4 million this year against the cap, which
01:11 is very significant.
01:13 And you've got your number one weapon for the future to grow with Brock Purdy.
01:19 He's the perfect weapon in the sense that he is a route runner.
01:23 He does get open against man.
01:24 That's exactly what Brock needs.
01:27 Absolutely extend Brandon Iuke.
01:29 Give him his $26-27 million he wants.
01:32 Save the $10.4 this year.
01:34 Keep him around for the long term.
01:36 We'll be good to go.
01:38 I think this is a no brainer.
01:39 And the other two we talked, you shake and Devo, we made the argument why we would move
01:43 on and both agreed that the Niners probably won't.
01:46 This one I think is just they're going to keep Brandon Iuke.
01:51 If something goes wrong and Brandon Iuke is not on this team, it would be devastating.
01:54 It would be a big mistake.
01:56 And I think it would be bad for the locker room.
01:57 Devo Samuel came out and told K Adams, like, don't worry about it.
01:59 He's coming back.
02:00 It would just be it's not the time to trade Brandon Iuke.
02:04 Maybe you give him an extension.
02:07 It could be a three year extension, a four year extension.
02:08 And when he's 28 or 29, trade him then.
02:11 But now at 25, when he's just getting started with Brock Purdy, the two of them have really
02:19 good chemistry and Brock still making minimum wage.
02:22 Now you trade him.
02:23 No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
02:26 Structure the extension in such a way that you can maybe trade him in two, three years.
02:30 Fine.
02:31 But not now.
02:32 That would be such a disaster.
02:33 I don't think they will.
02:37 I don't think so either.
02:39 Here's what does worry me, though, Grant.
02:40 I think every time a receiver gets signed, it pushes that closer to him being traded,
02:46 right?
02:47 Because his money's going up.
02:48 No, at all.
02:50 That did not help.
02:51 If Jefferson somehow gets a deal early before this draft and gets like 31 million, which
02:56 is probably where he's going to be.
02:59 That's not going to help either.
03:00 Not that I use going to go over that, but it means that 28 million is more likely.
03:04 And also a lot of people found comfort in the fact that the rumor came out that Brandon
03:08 and I, you and the 49ers, we're going to work on an extension right after free agency.
03:13 I actually looked at it the opposite way because the 49ers tend to wait on their contracts.
03:17 So if they're trying to enter negotiations right after free agency, that tells me they're
03:22 probably trying to gauge what the dollar amount is.
03:26 What is the floor for Brandon?
03:27 I, you know, if they feel like it's too high, they'll move on from him just like they did
03:33 Buckner.
03:34 And I think that's, that's where the worry comes in.
03:37 Right.
03:38 Yes, absolutely.
03:39 Absolutely.
03:40 Absolutely.
03:41 Now, I do want to say this.
03:42 Sorry.
03:43 Yeah, yeah, it does.
03:44 It does.
03:45 But I want to say this, and this is what gives me room for pause when it comes to them trading
03:53 Brandon and I, you, because they have said some great things about him recently.
03:57 Kyle Shanahan, when he was asked about him said, I know he's someone that we want here
04:00 for a long time.
04:02 And when John Lynch was asked about him, he said, we want him to be a Niner for a long
04:06 time.
04:07 He's an excellent football player.
04:08 He's an excellent human being, and he's an excellent leader.
04:12 And that made me feel good.
04:13 But then I realized those were not quotes about Brandon.
04:16 Those were quotes about before they traded him.
04:19 Yeah, there you go.
04:22 Yeah.
04:23 And when you say we want, we want this dude here for a long time, that's kind of code
04:26 for saying, does he want to be here?
04:28 We want him here.
04:29 Exactly.
04:30 But does he want to be here?
04:31 Because if he wants to be here, then he's going to have to work with us.
04:35 But if he wants every single penny he can get on the open market, then that's what he
04:39 wants to do.
04:40 That means he doesn't necessarily have to be here.
04:42 He wants to go wherever he can get his number.
04:46 And if Brock, if Brandon Iuke has a number in mind and won't budge off of it, that's
04:52 sort of what that means.
04:53 I mean, I don't think they're going to give him $28 million a year.
04:58 And if he feels he can get it somewhere else, they might be at an impasse.
05:04 And that's what I think they're going to try to figure out right as the free agency period
05:09 kind of kicks off.
05:11 Because they need to know if this is something that they can get done at a price point that
05:16 they think he's worth.
05:17 And if not, you can't trade him after.
05:20 You're not going to let him play out this fifth year deal.
05:22 You're going to have to sign him or you're going to have to trade him.
05:25 I would hate it though.
05:26 Because you'd be trading him because you couldn't trade Debo.
05:29 It's like, oh, well, we're already spending $28 million on this wide receiver over here.
05:34 We have to give a bunch of targets.
05:35 We don't have the many targets for Brandon Iuke.
05:36 And he is great, but we can't.
05:38 It's like, well, it's your fault.
05:40 So you're trading a better, younger wide receiver because you pay, you messed up and gave that
05:44 guy a bunch of money.
05:45 And it's like, well, this is easier financially.
05:47 Like that's weak.
05:48 I don't know, man.
05:49 Maybe some Niner fans or football fans in general can sort of do the mental gymnastics
05:55 to support whatever a team does, especially when they're successful.
05:58 But a lot of Niner fans I think would be really upset if this went down.
06:01 I mean, I'm giving away a signed Iuke jersey.
06:05 Someone's going to be really invested in this guy.
06:07 Are you?
06:08 Maybe that's why people aren't entering.
06:10 They're like, I don't know.
06:11 Is he going to be here?
06:12 I don't know.
06:13 Should I really waste $10 on this?
06:16 I don't know.
06:19 Okay.
06:21 Let me, let me ask you this.
06:25 If you had to put your most prized possession on this bet and one of them for sure was going
06:31 to be gone, you just didn't know which one the 49ers were either going to outright cut
06:35 use check or trade Grant and Iuke.
06:38 What would you put your bet on?
06:47 Trade Iuke.
06:48 He's just not in the industry.
06:51 Like they say he is.
06:52 He's not.
06:53 And that's why we keep coming back.
06:55 Cause you know who else was it?
06:57 Buckner.
06:58 He wasn't.
06:59 He wasn't.
07:00 You know why?
07:01 Cause he stood on business.
07:02 I wanted to say it again and I did.
07:03 I used to stand on business too.
07:04 Not sure what, how, or what that means, but I really have a strong feeling that Brandon
07:12 Iuke is standing on business right now.
07:14 I think the Niners have a problem with that.
07:17 Yeah.
07:18 I mean, it does seem like he's a bit of an outsider for whatever reason.
07:23 I don't know what some people are just outsiders by nature.
07:27 Yeah.
07:28 Yeah.
07:29 Like the book, the outsiders, they were all right here.
07:34 Right.
07:35 Outsiders.
07:36 He, uh, he also was recently doing a live with Jaden Daniels again, who is a good friend
07:42 of his, who is, they won the NSC championship game.
07:46 Did I not see him in there?
07:47 He was, he was, he was, he was, that's why.
07:52 That's why the whole, um, the whole him to go into the Raiders thing came out was because
07:58 of that, because him and Jaden Daniels are friends and they expect Jaden Daniels to end
08:02 up there.
08:03 So that's why his brother was like, Oh, you know, get him to Vegas or something.
08:08 It's like, Hey, why did he go to Vegas?
08:10 Oh, that's why.
08:14 Brandon you have no idea what's going to happen to you.
08:16 It's going to be a very rough, it's going to be very stressful a few months.
08:20 And I thought it was funny.
08:21 Debo Samuel was on the K Adam show and said, don't worry.
08:24 I got this.
08:25 I'm talking to him.
08:26 Debo the guy who requested a trade.
08:31 I mean, damn.
08:34 Debo just went through it though.
08:35 So maybe in hindsight, he's looking back on it.
08:37 I was like, you know what?
08:38 I probably wasn't worth all that.
08:41 Yeah.
08:42 Yeah.
08:43 If I would've just known I was going to get paid anyways, I probably would've chilled
08:47 out a little bit.
08:49 And so maybe he's talking to Brandon and Iuke about it as well.
08:51 I don't have a problem with that.
08:53 Actually.
08:54 I know that it seems weird, but Debo is a couple of years older and I don't mind that
08:58 he wants to kind of step in and be a leader here and just like, Hey, don't get stressed,
09:02 man.
09:03 It'll get taken care of.
09:04 You just, they're going to say a lot of terrible shit about you.
09:06 You got to be prepared for that.
09:07 It's not personal.
09:09 They said it about me too.
09:10 And I still got 24 a year.
09:12 You'll be fine.
09:13 So all I know is bringing it back before we leave this topic to Buckner.
09:18 He wanted $21 million a year annually.
09:20 It meant, I think a lot to his ego, pride, whatever, self-esteem to be over that $20
09:27 million a year mark.
09:28 It meant a lot to him and he got it.
09:31 And I think it meant a lot to the Niners to not go over that mark for him or any defensive
09:38 tackle not named Aaron Donald or Chris Jones at the time.
09:41 This was four years ago.
09:42 So they drew a line.
09:43 They're like, we're not doing that.
09:45 You want 21?
09:46 We'll offer you 18.
09:49 And it doesn't seem like a big gap, but it was enough for the Niners to move on.
09:54 What's the gap between Brandon and the Niners.
09:56 I was talking about this with Tom Jensen the other day.
09:59 Like if Evans got 26, then I, you could conceivably ask for 27 or 28.
10:09 And the Niners might say, we'll get offer you 24.
10:12 What we offered or 25.
10:15 If they're apart $3 million a year, that was enough to break down the negotiations.
10:23 Here's the real question though.
10:24 Here's the real question, which is who is the focal point in the Superbowl?
10:28 It wasn't IU.
10:29 It was Devo and they're paying Devo 24.
10:34 So do they really think that IU is worth that much?
10:36 I mean, are they going to come in at like 22?
10:39 Maybe not.
10:40 I mean, he's looking at it going, are you kidding me?
10:43 I mean, you have 24 years ago, all his number.
10:46 Yeah.
10:47 Like for his six targets a game, they're going to really give him $27 million.
10:50 They don't use them like that.
10:53 His floor is 26.
10:55 I'd be surprised at anything less than 26.
10:57 Maybe I could see him going 25.
10:59 Maybe if, if he just totally gives in, I don't, I don't think it's going to be less than 26
11:05 and whether it's the 49ers or another team, somebody is going to give him that money.
11:08 So I expect that he's going to stay.
11:11 I do.
11:12 I'm not saying he's going to get traded.
11:13 I'm certainly not advocating for him to get traded, but again, it comes down to, it is
11:18 the easiest trade to stomach for the 49ers because they clear the whole cap and they'll
11:25 get a first round pick.
11:27 It was kind of alarming that he didn't produce in the Superbowl.
11:30 He did produce the NFC championship game.
11:33 And you chalk that up to just not getting the opportunities, but then you hear Dave
11:35 Merritt, the chiefs DB coach come out and just roast Brandon and I, you can essentially
11:39 said like you let your emotions take you out of the game, Brandon.
11:45 And I think that's kind of interesting.
11:46 Like something I hadn't thought about with him because he does everything so well and
11:49 he's so passionate and he goes to that dark place that Kyle Shanahan talks about that
11:53 he likes players to go to, but you can get in his head.
11:57 Good teams do chiefs did.
11:59 So I don't know if that's something he outgrows or if that's a weakness in his game, like,
12:03 like how Brock party can't throw in the rain.
12:05 But that kind of gives me pause.
12:08 I always, my, my new paradigm is what would the chiefs do?
12:12 I think in the NFL, you, you should be thinking that way.
12:15 What's the best team in the league.
12:16 What would they do with the chiefs extend Brandon?
12:20 They wouldn't have extended Debo.
12:22 So no, no.
12:23 So something to think about.
12:26 [Music]