{"id":771129,"date":"2026-02-23T13:49:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T13:49:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/771129\/"},"modified":"2026-02-23T13:49:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T13:49:11","slug":"saints-a-potential-partner-for-49ers-wr-brandon-aiyuk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/771129\/","title":{"rendered":"Saints a potential partner for 49ers WR Brandon Aiyuk"},"content":{"rendered":"

Feb. 23, 2026, 4:45 a.m. PT<\/p>\n

While the San Francisco 49ers<\/a> have nearly 30 players hitting free agency this offseason, they’ll also have to decide how to move on from wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n

Aiyuk tore his ACL in Week 7 of the 2024 season, and while he started 2025 on the PUP list, his contract guarantees were voided when he stopped communicating with the team.<\/p>\n

Now, it’s clear that Aiyuk won’t be on the roster next year, but will they release him or find a team that’s willing to risk a trade?<\/p>\n

Bleacher Report’s Alex Ballentine identified<\/a> the New Orleans Saints<\/a> as a team that could consider acquiring Aiyuk in a trade. He predicts it would cost a 2026 sixth-round pick and a late-2027 conditional pick based on games played and performance.<\/p>\n

“New Orleans is currently trying to put the best roster possible around Tyler Shough. Giving him Aiyuk as another option alongside Chris Olave would certainly qualify,” Ballentine wrote.<\/p>\n

Expert NFL picks: Exclusive betting insights only at USA TODAY.<\/a><\/p>\n

“This move would be a gamble. The draft compensation isn’t a ton, but the Saints would also have to pay the receiver. However, it’s a gamble that could result in forming one of the best receiver tandems in the league if both can stay healthy.”<\/p>\n

The 49ers<\/a> don’t have much power in trade negotiations, so they’d probably be happy to get anything back in return for Aiyuk’s services.<\/p>\n

Luckily (or unluckily), they’ve already seen what their offense looks like without Aiyuk, but they still need to find a true top wide receiver for Brock Purdy to target in 2026 and beyond.<\/p>\n

More 49ers: 49ers WR takes to social media to ask for unearned incentive money<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Feb. 23, 2026, 4:45 a.m. PT While the San Francisco 49ers have nearly 30 players hitting free agency…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":771130,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2080],"tags":[220,95878,7,6,1161,252,2624,2623,96189,96190,95882,99361,95946,97125,96129,95888,95895,95897,96090,95883,95881],"class_list":{"0":"post-771129","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-francisco-49ers","8":"tag-49ers","9":"tag-accessfree","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-nfl","12":"tag-san-francisco","13":"tag-san-francisco-49ers","14":"tag-sanfrancisco","15":"tag-sanfrancisco49ers","16":"tag-sstssportsnflniners","17":"tag-sstsnniners","18":"tag-tagamerican-football","19":"tag-tagbrandon-aiyuk","20":"tag-tagcalifornia-gold-rush","21":"tag-tagchris-olave","22":"tag-tagnew-orleans-saints","23":"tag-tagnfl","24":"tag-tagnfl-hub","25":"tag-tagoverall-negative","26":"tag-tagsan-francisco-49ers","27":"tag-tagsports-news","28":"tag-typestory"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/771129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=771129"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/771129\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/771130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=771129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=771129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=771129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}