Star wide receiver that could interest Falcons on the trade market

One situation to watch ahead of the NFL Draft is the 49ers and Brandon Aiyuk. The star wide receiver is coming off the best season of his career, catching 75 passes for 1,342 yards and seven touchdowns on his way to second-team All-Pro honors.

At 26-years-old, Aiyuk is one of the bright young wide receivers in the game and deserves to be paid like it. The problem with that, as far as San Francisco is concerned, is they are already paying a lot of guys premium money, and it won’t be long before they have to sit down at the negotiating table with Brock Purdy.

The 49ers can’t pay everybody, which means players will be moved. When asked about the potential of Aiyuk being traded, general manager John Lynch said via Pro Football Talk, “I wouldn’t anticipate that.”

It’s the height of rumor season, but it appears the 49ers are at least evaluating all of their options when it comes to Brandon Aiyuk, with the San Francisco Chronicle’s Mike Silver saying it would take a first-round pick to pry him away.

Any team acquiring Brandon Aiyuk would be doing so knowing that they must break out the checkbook and ink him to a long-term deal. That may not be something the Falcons are willing to do, given they’ve still yet to work out a long-term extension with A.J. Terrell, and Kyle Pitts will be due for a new contract before long. Trading the 8th overall pick could also be deemed too rich for their liking. In that case, the Falcons would probably just be better off taking someone like Rome Odunze, who they would have on a rookie contract for five more years.

However, if the Falcons could avoid parting ways with this year’s first-round selection, that would make this an entirely different conversation. Adding Brandon Aiyuk to the Atlanta offense would give them the best group of skill players in the league to go along with the newly acquired Kirk Cousins and an offensive line that is returning all five starters. That’s an enticing proposition that would allow Terry Fontenot to focus fully on addressing the defense during the NFL Draft.