49ers have succeeded with talent acquisitions but failed at addition by subtraction of Brandon Aiyuk

The San Francisco 49ers have done a lot of important offseason work adding exciting pieces to their team or making sure key players stay put. So, general manager John Lynch was happy to discuss some of those this week because ...

... The 49ers have signed WR Mike Evans.

... Signed LB Dre Greenlaw.

... Signed WR Christian Kirk.

... Re-signed K Eddie Piñiero.

... Traded for DT Osa Odighizuwa.

... And on Monday, the 49ers re-signed perennial Pro Bowl offensive tackle Trent Williams to a two year extension worth $50 million.

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Yes, the 49ers have done a great job of talent addition. But they sure have failed at addition by subtraction because receiver Brandon Aiyuk remains on the roster despite Lynch’s best efforts to trade him.

Lynch on Monday tried to put the best spin he could on that failure when he announced he’s had discussions with other teams about an Aiyuk trade.

"Yeah, I've had some discussions," Lynch confirmed. "Do I think it's a high probability? Likely no. But, is there a chance? Yeah, I think there's a chance."

The educated guess here is if the 49ers can finally trade Aiyuk for something during the draft, it will be a low-round pick because of his recent history both on and off the field.

But Lynch apparently isn’t ruling out the possibility another team loses its mind and trades for a receiver who didn’t play in all of 2025, hasn’t been around the team since last November, and had a driving escapade on the roads just outside the team’s training facility while he was injured and unwisely posted the episode on social media.

The 49ers were unhappy with Aiyuk even before last season, dating back to July of 2025 when they voided approximately $27 million of his 2026 guaranteed money, citing his failure to meet contractual requirements regarding participation in team activities and rehabilitation following his 2024 season-ending knee injury.

So it’s been frosty between the sides for a while. The entire Earth knows it, and that makes trading Aiyuk for anything notable a nearly futile undertaking.

It hasn’t helped that Lynch announced he didn’t want Aiyuk on the team after the 2025 season. That sends the message the club doesn't value the player so why would another team feel the need to value him?

Then coach Kyle Shanahan repeated he was hopeful the team "could get something" for Aiyuk during the NFL annual meeting in March. Again, not exactly selling Aiyuk as a major talent.

And there was Lynch on Monday, announcing the work to jettison Aiyuk continues.

 "I think I was candid with you guys in saying at the end of the season that he's likely played his last snap for us," Lynch repeated again. "We all are in concert on where we're going with Brandon.

"At league meetings, I talked to you guys, I thought it would have been irresponsible not to give it through league meetings because there's various inflection points where a lot of deals at least start to get talked about. The league meetings are a great opportunity because everyone in the league is there.

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"The draft is another opportunity because a lot of things happen on draft week."

So the 49ers will continue to panhandle for trade gold through the draft even if the work offers nothing but offers of dirt.

"I think we'll see it through here," Lynch said. "We'll focus on our draft. If something happens there, great. If not, we'll re-evaluate it. He's still a member of this roster right now and we'll treat him as such."

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A quick NFL lesson on how teams speak: When a coach or general manager says a player is on the roster "right now," that means that player will not be on the roster in a little while.

The problem for the 49ers has been that a little while has been a long time in coming.