{"id":899534,"date":"2026-05-24T01:12:18","date_gmt":"2026-05-24T01:12:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/899534\/"},"modified":"2026-05-24T01:12:18","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T01:12:18","slug":"analyst-identifies-underrated-trade-destinations-for-brandon-aiyuk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/899534\/","title":{"rendered":"Analyst identifies underrated trade destinations for Brandon Aiyuk"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Brandon Aiyuk<\/a> trade saga in San Francisco<\/a> is still very much unresolved. With training camp just a few months away, though, the 49ers are in no rush to make a deal<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Washington Commanders<\/a> have seemingly emerged as the leading candidate<\/a> to acquire the 2020 first-round pick, but neither side appears to budge<\/a> in terms of pulling off a deal. That means that, theoretically, there is a much wider net of potential landing spots for the veteran wideout that extends beyond the most likely teams.<\/p>\n

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Bleacher Report’s Gary Davenport<\/a> laid out six underrated trade destinations that aren’t Washington and exclude the other NFC West rivals in the Los Angeles Rams<\/a>, Arizona Cardinals<\/a> and Seattle Seahawks<\/a>. He named the Las Vegas Raiders<\/a>, Los Angeles Chargers<\/a>, New York Giants<\/a>, New England Patriots<\/a>, Indianapolis Colts<\/a> and Atlanta Falcons<\/a> as possible outside-the-box destinations for Aiyuk.<\/p>\n

Why the Raiders could trade for Aiyuk<\/p>\n

The Raiders have a new head coach in Klint Kubiak and first overall pick Fernando Mendoza eventually taking over at quarterback. The team also doesn’t have a clear No. 1 receiver beyond tight end Brock Bowers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Playing for the Raiders likely wouldn’t mean many wins for Aiyuk, at least in the short-term. But given the lack of proven talent at the position in Las Vegas<\/a>, assuming Aiyuk is anywhere close to 100 percent he could ostensibly become the No. 1 wideout for the Raiders in relatively short order.<\/p>\n

And those targets (and the production that emanates from them) probably means more for rehabbing Aiyuk’s stock than winning games.<\/p>\n

Why the Chargers could trade for Aiyuk<\/p>\n

L.A. needs more weapons for Justin Herbert<\/a>. Ladd McConkey<\/a> is the only long-term weapon on the team, with Quentin Johnston<\/a> likely playing for a new deal in 2026.<\/p>\n

He could be for the Chargers what they wanted Johnston to be: the outside complement to McConkey in the slot.<\/p>\n

And an already solid L.A. offense would be that much more formidable.<\/p>\n

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Why the Giants could trade for Aiyuk<\/p>\n

With Malik Nabers<\/a>‘ availability for Week 1 uncertain after injury, the Giants’ receiver depth thins out quickly. They signed Darnell Mooney<\/a> and tight end Isaiah Likely<\/a> in free agency and still have Darius Slayton<\/a> and Jaylin Hyatt, but none of those players are stars.<\/p>\n

It’s not like Aiyuk would cost a lot in terms of draft capital. His arrival would alleviate some of the pressure on Nabers to rush back onto the field. And once he is back, a Nabers\/Aiyuk duo could blossom into one of the better one-two punches at the wide receiver position in the NFL.<\/p>\n

Why the Patriots could trade for Aiyuk<\/p>\n

The Patriots were reportedly an Aiyuk suitor<\/a> in 2024 during his contract negotiations and could be again if the expected A.J. Brown<\/a> trade falls through. The price would likely be lower for Aiyuk than Brown, which is a more enticing situation for the Patriots.<\/p>\n

Aiyuk isn’t as close to as proven an option as Brown. But where Brown could command a first-round pick in a trade, Aiyuk will be far less expensive in terms of draft capital. And cap space isn’t an issue in New England<\/a>\u2014the team is sitting on just over $35.5 million in cap space, per Over the Cap.<\/p>\n

The Patriots rolled the dice on a mercurial wide receiver last year in Stefon Diggs<\/a> and got a 1,000-yard season out of him.<\/p>\n

Perhaps they could coax a similar campaign from Aiyuk.<\/p>\n

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Why the Colts could trade for Aiyuk<\/p>\n

The Colts are in win-now mode, which means they’ll need to get risky with some moves. They don’t have a first-round pick in 2027 after the Sauce Gardner<\/a> trade, so they’ll also need to be creative with adding talent for Daniel Jones<\/a>. That’s where Aiyuk comes in.<\/p>\n

If Indianapolis believes Jones will be ready to go at or near Week 1, it makes sense for the team to take a flier on Aiyuk.<\/p>\n

Because while his layoff and the way his tenure in San Francisco ended are risks, it’s not going to take a high draft pick to get him.<\/p>\n

Why the Falcons could trade for Aiyuk<\/p>\n

Similar to the Giants, the Falcons don’t have a lot of depth behind their No. 1 pass-catcher in Drake London<\/a>. Tight end Kyle Pitts<\/a> is on the franchise tag and Bijan Robinson<\/a>, while incredible, is a running back. Adding Aiyuk at a reasonable rate will help new head coach Kevin Stefanski ignite a rebuild in Atlanta.<\/p>\n

The NFC South is arguably the most wide-open division in the league. All four teams have a legitimate chance to capture the crown if things break the right way.<\/p>\n

Adding Aiyuk on the cheap could greatly increase the chances of that happening for the Falcons in 2026.<\/p>\n

Whatever happens with Aiyuk will entirely depend on the 49ers<\/a>‘ willingness to part with a player who was, at one point, one of the better receivers in the game.That has yet to manifest.<\/p>\n

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This article originally appeared on Niners Wire: Analyst identifies underrated trade destinations for Brandon Aiyuk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Brandon Aiyuk trade saga in San Francisco is still very much unresolved. With training camp just a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":899535,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2059],"tags":[220,8694,390,254,4127,5305,797,2005,2772,6653,6709,4130,7,2004,392,2381,4698,1159,6153,470,1744,393,262,58,4126,1167,249,56,6,9277,1161,7536,261,531,102,111],"class_list":["post-899534","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-indianapolis-colts","tag-49ers","tag-a-j-brown","tag-arizona-cardinals","tag-atlanta-falcons","tag-bijan-robinson","tag-brandon-aiyuk","tag-brock-bowers","tag-colts","tag-daniel-jones","tag-darius-slayton","tag-darnell-mooney","tag-drake-london","tag-football","tag-indianapolis","tag-indianapolis-colts","tag-indianapoliscolts","tag-isaiah-likely","tag-justin-herbert","tag-kyle-pitts","tag-ladd-mcconkey","tag-las-vegas","tag-las-vegas-raiders","tag-los-angeles-chargers","tag-los-angeles-rams","tag-malik-nabers","tag-new-england","tag-new-england-patriots","tag-new-york-giants","tag-nfl","tag-quentin-johnston","tag-san-francisco","tag-sauce-gardner","tag-seattle-seahawks","tag-stefon-diggs","tag-trade","tag-washington-commanders"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/899534","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=899534"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/899534\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/899535"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=899534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=899534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=899534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}