San Francisco 49ers star wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk has officially handed in his trade request, but where is the best destination for him? There are plenty of good options. The Arizona Cardinals, Los Angeles Chargers, and his preferred destination, the Washington Commanders, are all teams that have been thrown out there. However, the best spot he could end up is with Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills.
There are places that can pay him more money like the Cardinals or offer him the chance to play with his good friend and college quarterback like the Commanders. But if we're talking about going to the best football situation where winning games and putting up numbers is the outcome, the Bills make the most sense.
Why the Bills are the perfect Brandon Aiyuk trade destination
Before Brandon Aiyuk made his trade request to the 49ers, he'd been an excellent, if underrated NFL wide receiver. He was the 25th pick of the 2020 NFL Draft and had a solid rookie season with 60 catches for 748 yards and five touchdowns. Since then, his receiving yards have gone up every year, from 826 to 1,015 to 1,342. And while he's been overshadowed by the explosive exploits of Deebo Samuel, the wild abandon of George Kittle, and the all-around brilliance of Christian McCaffrey, Aiyuk has been a critical part of the 49ers offense.
The 49ers don't want to give him a big new contract extension on par with the best receivers in the league, which would mean adding a $30 million pact to an already strained salary cap that is only going to get tighter when they have to extend Brock Purdy.
That all makes sense for San Francisco, but it may mean they have to make this trade or risk both losing him for nothing eventually and having a distraction hanging over the start of the season.
Buffalo currently has some salary cap issues of its own, but they can afford to give Aiyuk a new deal that starts next year when Stefon Diggs' dead cap money comes off their ledger, and possibly so does a highly-paid veteran like Von Miller.
That's the front office side of this potential Brandon Aiyuk trade. The football side is that the Bills need a steady veteran wide receiver and Aiyuk would immediately get the best quarterback he's ever played with.
In four years, Aiyuk has caught passes from Jimmy Garoppolo, Nick Mullens, CJ Bethard, Trey Lance, Josh Johnson, and Pudry. None of those players is even close to the QB that Allen is. If Aiyuk and Allen get together, Aiyuk could go from a top-20 wideout to a top-10 or even top-five pass catcher if he continues on the path he has walked so far in the NFL.
For the Bills, getting rid of Diggs and Gabriel Davis made sense, but rookie Keon Coleman, Khalil Shakir, and Curtis Samuel are not exactly a murder's row of WRs. Now, if you swap Samuel for Aiyuk, now we're talking. And if Coleman develops into the true WR1 that many think he can, push Aiyuk to a 1B or even a WR2, that would be an incredible position group.
This is a win-win for both parties. Aiyuk gets to be the true No. 1 out of the gate and gets a big new contract. The Bills get a younger, more reliable, and (hopefully) less dramatic WR1 to help them finally reach a Super Bowl in the Josh Allen era.
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