Deebo offers his perspective on Aiyuk’s 49ers trade request originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
Deebo Samuel has been in Brandon Aiyuk’s shoes before, and he certainly can empathize with his 49ers teammate.
Aiyuk has yet to practice in training camp this summer as he “holds in,” awaiting a lucrative new contract from San Francisco — or, a payday elsewhere after requesting a trade from the 49ers in mid-July. But based on his own experience, Samuel knows a trade request doesn’t mean the end of things between Aiyuk and the team that drafted him.
“I’ll just say it’s a stressful time, and you have a million things going on in your head,” Samuel told Kay Adams on the “Up & Adams” show Friday at 49ers training camp. “With me going through it before, I kind of get everything. You don’t know what’s happening here, what’s happening there, or what’s being said here.
“But at the end of the day, it’s just negotiations, and some things you can take personal, some things you can’t. [The trade request] it just a part of the negotiation process, and those times are stressful. If you don’t get what you want, you’re just all over the place, like, ‘Is this how it’s going to go?’ And your mind’s just wandering.
“Overall, it’s just a stressful time, and I feel like he’ll get through it.”
Samuel requested his own trade out of the Bay two years ago when his contract talks stalled, but the All-Pro ended up re-signing with the 49ers on a three-year, $73.5 million contract, ending a hold-in of his own. Aiyuk, meanwhile, is on the same page as San Francisco regarding the first three years of a proposed contract, NFL Media’s Mike Garafolo reported Friday, while noting that the star wide receiver wants an adjustment to a non-guaranteed fourth year.
On the other hand, the 49ers also have gone as far as working out the framework of trades with other teams.
Regardless of where things currently stand, however, Samuel expressed confidence that Aiyuk will re-sign with the 49ers. But even then, Aiyuk won’t be stress-free, Samuel warned.
“Oh for sure,” Samuel told Adams when asked if everything “blew over” for him after re-signing with San Francisco. “But, I remember having this conversation with [Nick] Bosa. He was like, ‘Hey man, once you got paid, you just feel like it’s over. But it’s 10 time more stressful going out there on the field more than anything.’
“It’s like, ‘All right, now we paid you this much amount of money, so you’ve got to go out here and just go crazy every game.’ “
It remains to be seen how this saga between San Francisco and Aiyuk will end. But if Samuel’s past situation is any indication, it could be good news for the 49ers Faithful.
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