Brandon Aiyuk Aiming to Reset the WR Market ... And What it Means for CeeDee Lamb
NFL WRs are cashing in ...
It has been a lucrative offseason to be an NFL wide receiver.
Amon-Ra St. Brown became the highest-paid wide receiver in the sport when the Detroit Lions signed their wunderkind playmaker to a four-year contract extension worth $120 million, fetching $77 million fully guaranteed.
However, St. Brown’s time atop the leaderboard was short-lived, as less than 36 hours later, A.J. Brown put pen to paper on a deal with the Philadelphia Eagles that will pay him $96 million over three seasons with a whopping $84 million in guaranteed money.
Both St. Brown and Brown’s contracts came in the aftermath of the Eagles paying DeVonta Smith upwards of $75 million on his new extension.
It’s about to get even more crowded at the top of the wide receiver pay scale.
Just look at some of the players eligible for new contracts and in various stages of negotiations with their teams over long-term extensions: CeeDee Lamb (Dallas Cowboys), Justin Jefferson (Minnesota Vikings), Ja’Marr Chase (Cincinnati Bengals), and Brandon Aiyuk (San Francisco 49ers).
Lamb is in serious limbo in Dallas, as the Cowboys’ entire offseason seems to have run aground amid nonexistent talks with quarterback Dak Prescott, leaving the star receiver as well as All-Pro edge rusher Micah Parsons in a holding pattern reminiscent of LaGuardia on the Tuesday morning after Memorial Day.
“Those two deals will only help CeeDee,” a prominent agent familiar with the WR market recently told me on how Brown and St. Brown’s contracts impact Lamb. “They push the No. 1 wide receiver market above $30 million annually. CeeDee will probably reset the market based on how Dallas does deals.”
Meanwhile, Aiyuk hopes to break the bank in San Francisco.
“At that number or higher,” Jeremy Fowler reported on ESPN, comparing Aiyuk’s demands to St. Brown’s deal.
Aiyuk, 26, is set to make $14.1 million this season, and the 49ers’ cap situation is about to change dramatically once quarterback Brock Purdy is eligible for a new deal next offseason. With one Super Bowl appearance already under his belt, Purdy will likely eventually sign a contract that makes him one of the three-highest paid quarterbacks in the league.
For Aiyuk, similarly to Lamb, the waiting game could prove quite lucrative as other teams with far more cap space and fewer mouths in need of feeding in the immediate future lock up their stars to long-term deals.
But, it doesn’t sound as though Aiyuk is in the mood to offer any sort of hometown discount to stay part of one of the most electrifying collections of skill-players in the league. And he shouldn’t be.
Weekly NFL Content Roundup
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Patrick Mahomes Has Strong 5-Word Statement on Kansas City Chiefs’ Offense
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New York Giants Could Make Stunning Daniel Jones Decision
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