By Dianna Russini, Matt Barrows, David Lombardi and Amos Morale

The San Francisco 49ers and wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk have agreed to a four-year, $120 million contract extension, league sources said Thursday.

The extension ends a difficult contract stalemate that saw Aiyuk hold out during training camp while the 49ers discussed potential deals with several teams. Aiyuk was even cleared to negotiate contract terms with teams.

The 49ers were only willing to trade Aiyuk if they could get a top-flight wide receiver to replace him, league sources said. They offered a third-round pick to the Denver Broncos for Courtland Sutton, and then reportedly traded Aiyuk to the Pittsburgh Steelers, but the Broncos declined the offer, the sources said.

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Aiyuk was entering the final year of his five-year rookie contract and had been pursuing a long-term extension this offseason. General manager John Lynch said at the start of training camp that there were “no absolute certainties” regarding a potential Aiyuk trade, but stressed that the 49ers “fully intend for Brandon to be a Niner.” While Aiyuk’s withholding continued into the third week of camp, the tone changed and the 49ers opened trade discussions with the Steelers, New England Patriots and Cleveland Browns among the reported interested teams.

But the 49ers and Aiyuk opened new contract negotiations on Aug. 9, renewing optimism that they could reach a deal.

This wasn’t a new deal for Brandon Aiyuk. Nothing has changed in terms of numbers over the last few weeks.

Let’s hope the start-up period goes well.

— Dianna Russini (@DMRussini) August 29, 2024

Aiyuk, 26, is coming off a 2023 season in which he had 75 receptions for 1,342 yards and seven touchdowns and earned second-team All-Pro honors. In his four-year career, Aiyuk has 269 receptions for 3,931 yards and 25 TDs.

The 25th pick in the 2020 NFL Draft, Aiyuk improved his play in 2022 when Brock Purdy emerged as a late-season revelation after injuries to Trey Lance and Jimmy Garoppolo. Aiyuk eclipsed the 1,000-yard mark that season with 78 receptions for 1,015 yards and eight touchdowns.

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Aiyuk is a key part of an impressive skill position core that includes Christian McCaffrey, Deebo Samuel Sr. and George Kittle. The 49ers drafted wideout Ricky Pearsall — Aiyuk’s former teammate at Arizona State — in the first round of this year’s draft.

Now, Aiyuk has a new deal, and Purdy will soon have his favorite target back on the field. Keeping that tandem together has always been the biggest reason to re-sign Aiyuk to a long-term deal. He is, of course, a key part of the 49ers’ push to return to the Super Bowl this season.

Just as importantly, San Francisco sees him as a bridge to the future. There’s no doubt that next season’s roster will look different as free agency takes its toll, the roster ages and the team sheds some of its high-dollar players. But the 49ers want to keep a core of 20-something players intact. That includes Fred Warner, 27, Nick Bosa, 26, and Aiyuk. And if he can come close to matching his 2023 campaign this year, it will be Purdy, 24. His chemistry with Aiyuk was evident from the start last season, and, including in the playoffs, Purdy has focused on him more than any other pass catcher:

• Aiyuk, 116
• Samuel, 106
• McCaffrey, 103
• Kittel, 99
• Jauan Jennings, 45

The signing of Aiyuk, 11 days before the start of the 49ers’ regular season, also gives him some runway to regain his rhythm and reconnect with Purdy. Still, it’s hard to see him as polished as he was at the start of the 2023 campaign. That’s because Aiyuk had an excellent offseason a year ago. He and McCaffrey were clearly the best players on the field during spring drills in 2023, and he dominated training camp as well.

It was no surprise, then, when he caught all eight of his targets for 129 yards, including two touchdown passes, in a whistle-stopping victory over the Steelers to open the season. This year? Despite attending team meetings this summer, he hasn’t practiced with the team at all, and the 49ers are likely taking him slowly back into practice now that his deal is — finally — in place.

The deal also means the 49ers continue to successfully extend their A-list players to lucrative contracts. They’ve now completed such deals for five straight years, starting with Kittle (2020), Warner (2021), Samuel (2022), Bosa (2023) and now Aiyuk. The latter three deals in particular have seemingly become increasingly difficult to achieve — and that’s not surprising given the team’s increasingly crowded salary cap situation. But this Aiyuk signing could be an exceptionally difficult needle to thread given Purdy’s looming mega-deal.

Eventually, they found the sweet spot on a deal with Aiyuk, but it took the most unpredictable and dramatic negotiation of the Lynch/Kyle Shanahan era to get there. Ultimately, the 49ers were left holding the line — Aiyuk was already under contract through 2024 — as they raced through a negotiating stalemate to reach this conclusion. Now they must resolve Trent Williams’ continued reluctance before the entire financial focus shifts to Purdy in 2025.

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(Photo: Thearon W. Henderson/Getty)