With a player’s day off on Wednesday allowing the team and the San Francisco 49ers organization time to decompress after an extremely stressful offseason, those inside the front office might be tempted to reflect on a job well done.
In the end, after a pair of sagas that seemed at one point like they could reach very unsatisfactory outcomes for San Francisco, the 49ers got both Brandon Aiyuk and Trent Williams back on the practice field ahead of Monday’s season opener with the New York Jets.
Travis Kelce reveals the real reason he purchased stake in thoroughbred racehorse named Swift Delivery
With Aiyuk’s four-year, $120 million extension and Williams’ reworked deal eventually following extensions for Christian McCaffrey and Jauan Jennings, the 49ers essentially achieved all their offseason goals, save for losing defensive tackle Arik Armstead back in March after he refused to restructure his deal.
But now is not the time for backslapping in the 49er front office. Yes, they got the Aiyuk and Williams deals over the line, but there’s no escaping the reality it took San Francisco far too long to achieve that feat, leaving Aiyuk and Williams with just a week of practice to prepare for the Jets.
Aiyuk, for his part, accepted some of the blame for his very public contract saga stretching until the end of August, the All-Pro wide receiver admitting he made the negotiation “a little more difficult than it needed to be at the end”.
Williams, though, did express some surprise at how long it took his holdout to be resolved, though he appreciated the extenuating circumstances of the other contract issues partially contributed to the delay.