It was messy, ugly, and downright bizarre, but for Brandon Aiyuk, it was all worth it.
He’s a very, very rich man, now.
The 49ers’ wide receiver, after six months of strange contract negotiations that featured both a hold-in and, eventually, a hold-out, agreed to a four-year deal worth a whopping $120 million on Thursday.
He won. It’s as simple as that.
And now the big question: Can the 49ers win, too?
Overpay? Underpay? That will be decided in the not-too-distant future. Aiyuk wanted to be paid like a top wide receiver, and anything less than that level of play simply won’t do.
And anything less than a Super Bowl win simply won’t do for the Niners.
Frankly, I’m surprised the Niners paid at all. With the market for wide receivers exploding this offseason, a few days ago, it looked as if Aiyuk’s days in a 49ers uniform were numbered. Aiyuk’s demands were too high, and there was only so much money to go around to a team loaded with star players. He was going to be the odd man out.
But San Francisco did pay — handsomely — and can chalk up that nearly 25 percent mark-up from the team’s original contract offer to Aiyuk this spring to the cost of doing business.
Or call it a Super Bowl tax, if you must.
The fact remains that Aiyuk is worth what he just landed from the Niners, to the extent that any receiver in football is worth that kind of cash. San Francisco and Aiyuk know the receiver’s market value because they let him shop himself in that market a few weeks ago, and other teams were more than willing to meet the receiver’s contractual demands.
Ultimately, though, Aiyuk wasn’t interested in playing for the Patriots or Browns. He wanted to be a Niner (or a Steeler, I suppose.)
He wanted to win and be paid. To have his cake and eat it, too.
He can afford a whole bunch of cake now.
What does this all mean for the Niners?
It means they have Brock Purdy’s favorite pass-catching target under contract, long-term. Ignore the cost for a moment — that’s a good thing if you’re trying to win games.
On the flip side, Aiyuk’s new deal paired with Purdy’s new contract, which is expected to cost the team more than $55 million per year when it’s signed after this season, likely means an era of austerity is coming for the rest of the Niners roster.
There’s a reason Aiyuk (and Christian McCaffrey and Trent Williams) pushed so hard to be paid this summer — there won’t be much, if any money left for the rest of the team next summer.
As such, these will likely be the final years of Deebo Samuel and Charvarious Ward’s 49ers careers. Deommodore Lenoir might have been priced out of Santa Clara, too.
That won’t blindside the Niners. Those calculations were priced in when they put this contract in front of Aiyuk.
The end result needs no translation: The Niners are all-in on winning a Super Bowl this season.
Well, almost all in. They still need to sign Williams, their star left tackle, to a new contract if they are to pull him out of his semi-retirement in Texas.
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But the precedent has been set, and it shouldn’t be applied selectively now.
They paid Aiyuk. It’s time to pay Williams, too.
Once this team is able to put this messy, unbecoming offseason behind it, it might find itself on a straight path to New Orleans and Super Bowl LIX.
These are the 49ers, after all. Salary cap numbers are interesting for dorks like me, but ultimately, the only number that matters for this team is how many Lombardi Trophies are in the case at the team facility.
And if the Niners have six of them come February, the ends will justify the means.
