Brandon Aiyuk‘s days in the Bay Area might be numbered … ’cause the NFL star has officially requested a trade from the San Francisco 49ers.
NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo broke the news on Tuesday … saying the 26-year-old wide receiver has asked the team to find him a new dance partner after an offseason of failed negotiations over a long-term deal.
Aiyuk is owed around $14 mil, from the 49ers this season, but with wide receivers seeing pay increases around the league … the four-year pro would like to see his paycheck go up as well.
The trade request is pretty surprising — a few weeks ago, we caught up with Brandon out at LAX … and he told us he was ready to suit up for the Niners again this season.
“For sure,” he told us at the airport. “For sure!”
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Brandon wasn’t stressing the whole situation at the time … telling us, “I’m just vibing, man. I’m just hanging out.”
Clearly … the good vibes are now gone.
Even with the 49ers having players like George Kittle and Christian McCaffrey, losing Aiyuk would be a blow to Kyle Shanahan and his offense. So far in his career, the wideout has caught 269 passes for 3,931 yards and 25 touchdowns.
While it’s unclear what teams would have interest, fans are sure to bring up his Pittsburgh Pirates hat as a reason to claim he’s heading to the Steel City … but he told us it was just a gift from the baseball team — so it might not be worth digging into that.
It takes two to tango, though … and it’s being reported that S.F. has no intentions of moving Aiyuk despite the request.
If the team does decide to move him … someone’s getting a dynamic weapon. So stay tuned.