The New England Patriots could look a lot different once the 2025 NFL season kicks off this fall. New England had a dreadful 2024 season, only winning four games during the regular season. As a result, the Patriots fired head coach Jerod Mayo and replaced him with franchise star Mike Vrabel.
New England has a talented head coach and a promising rookie quarterback to lead their offense. Now the Patriots simply need to rebuild the roster around Drake Maye and they’ll have a chance at success in 2025.
The Patriots did not waste much time during free agency. New England added a ton of talent on both sides of the football. Unsurprisingly, Vrabel prioritized the defense in free agency.
The Patriots spent big money on a handful of presumed starters, including former Eagles star Milton Williams. They also brought in two more defensive starters in Carlton Davis III, who signed a $60 million contract, and linebacker Robert Spillane.
Now New England needs to focus on adding talent to their offense during the 2025 NFL Draft. The Patriots have nine total selections in the draft, including the fourth overall pick.
In a recent 2025 NFL mock draft, ESPN’s Bill Barnwell created a trade proposal for each pick in the draft. He made an interesting proposal for the Patriots, which involved them trading away the fourth overall pick and acquiring a talented wide receiver.
But could this actually happen in real life?
Below we will explore Bill Barnwell’s trade proposal that would send Brandon Aiyuk to the Patriots.
Bill Barnwell suggests Patriots attempt to trade for Brandon Aiyuk during 2025 NFL Draft
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Let’s go over the terms of this trade proposal before we get into any analysis.
Patriots receive:
WR Brandon Aiyuk 2025 first-round pick (11th overall)
49ers receive:
2025 first-round pick (4th overall) G Cole Strange
This is an incredibly interesting trade proposal to consider for both teams.
The Patriots need to add more firepower on offense and a legit WR1 like Aiyuk would be the perfect solution.
What makes this proposal extra enticing is the fact that New England was in the mix to acquire Aiyuk before the start of the 2024 season.
Aiyuk’s production dipped massively in 2024, but we should not forget his incredible 2023 season.
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Aiyuk hauled in 75 receptions for 1,342 yards and seven touchdowns in 2023, emerging as a playmaker capable of being the featured weapon on an NFL offense.
Can the 49ers stomach the huge cap hit needed to trade away Brandon Aiyuk?
There is also the financial side of this trade to consider. Even if the proposal looks pretty balanced on paper, it will never happen in real life if it puts either team into an impossible salary cap situation.
The 49ers signed Brandon Aiyuk to a four-year contract worth $120 million just before the start of the 2024 season. This means that Aiyuk has some huge salary cap hits over the next few seasons, which makes this trade difficult for both sides but in different ways.
For the Patriots, acquiring Aiyuk would be a huge win in the short term. Due to the structure of Aiyuk’s contract, he would only count $2 million against the salary cap in 2025 and 2026. That is practically nothing for a talented starting wide receiver. However, those figures jump up to $28.12 million in 2027 and $30 million in 2028. That is far enough away that New England can prepare for it, but it will be a burden worth some careful consideration.
As for the 49ers, their situation is almost the opposite. San Francisco would experience the most pain with this trade during the 2025 season. The 49ers effectively owe Aiyuk at least $76 million guaranteed over the next two seasons. One byproduct is that trading away Aiyuk will actually cost the 49ers $28 million in cap space in 2025.
That said, the 49ers would enjoy cap relief of roughly $16 million in 2026 and $40 million in 2027. This could be appealing to a 49ers team that is exploring an extension for Brock Purdy.
San Francisco is also in a retooling mindset with their roster construction. As a result, they may value gaining more cap space in the future.
Grading a hypothetical Brandon Aiyuk trade to the Patriots
I’ll give the Patriots an A for this trade.
Aiyuk fills a huge position of need and comes at a reasonable price. Moving down from the fourth overall pick is a tough pill to swallow, but the Patriots could certainly add a talented player at 11th overall.
Meanwhile, I’ll give the 49ers a B- for this trade.
The perception of how good or bad San Francisco did with this trade depends on your opinion of how they should approach the future. This trade does not look great for a win-now mentality, but it does look rather good as a rebuilding move.
Ultimately, this trade could be a possibility for the 49ers so long as they are confident they can sign their rookies and field a competitive 53-man roster this fall.