Brandon Aiyuk Contract: DeForest Buckner seems more an outlier

The one thing many could point to when all this Brandon Aiyuk drama was going on was DeForest Buckner. That was the one homegrown, No. 1, S-tier player the San Francisco 49ers traded away. in return they got a first round pick which became Javon Kinlaw.

So then when deals came for George Kittle, Nick Bosa, Fred Warner and more, it’s fair to be skittish remembering not only DeForest Buckner’s deal, but expectations Kinlaw could replace him.

Now Brandon Aiyuk, the one negotiation we can all say was the most difficult in the John Lynch/Kyle Shanahan era went like most of the others: extended and paid.

DeForest Buckner is an outlier. Perhaps a learning experience.

For the uninitiated, John Lynch made a statement that he wanted to make DeForest Buckner a 49er for a long, long time.

A year and a half later, Buckner was traded to the Indianapolis Colts. So much for long, long time. There was a lot more than just a massive salary; the 49ers had a few contracts to take care of that year. Jimmie Ward and Arik Armstead are the big ones. Many might point to it being a decision between Armstead or Buckner, but it was more like Armstead, Ward, etc. etc. or Buckner.

Furthermore, rather than this thing dragging out with the 49ers, they made their offer, Buckner wasn’t thrilled and he got his trade. Many thought it was the 49ers trying to “get cute” with the salary cap and that probably was the best way to describe it.

The Brandon Aiyuk situation had many opportunities to go just like the Buckner situation did. In many ways, one can wonder if the 49ers didn’t honor Buckner’s trade request so quickly, would those negotiations mimiked what we saw in the summer of 2024?

When Lynch made a claim Aiyuk wanted to be a 49er for a long, long time, like Nick Bosa, I was quick to point out the same thing was said about Buckner. Every situation is different, and no one can predict how a negotiation will go (no one could have predicted the chaos that was this summer).

At this point, Buckner seems to be the only player that had to depart. An outlier to what usually is when the 49ers say they want someone, they are going to try to keep him. We can still point to the Buckner situation when we hear the 49ers plans but two things are more clear: we never how how a negotiation will go, and Buckner is still the only big extension to an S-tier player that didn’t go the way many fans would have hoped.