Brandon Aiyuk is fresh off of his first 1,000-yard season and has been the talk of the San Francisco 49ers camp this summer. This offense has no shortage of viable fantasy football options, and Aiyuk is certainly in that mix. However, the week-to-week consistency is a fair concern, so how should Aiyuk be valued for fantasy entering the 2023 season?
Behind in research? Get a trade offer in your dynasty or redraft league? Not sure who to start or sit this week? Leverage PFN’s FREE fantasy tools — our Fantasy Football Draft Kit, Fantasy Football Trade Analyzer and Calculator, and Start/Sit Optimizer! Put the finishing touch on your A+ draft with 1 of our 425+ fantasy football team names.
Brandon Aiyuk’s Fantasy Outlook for the 2023 NFL Season
The 49ers open 2023 much the way they ended the 2022 regular season from a roster construction standpoint. All signs point to the encouraging Brock Purdy starting the season under center ahead of Trey Lance and Sam Darnold, while Christian McCaffrey will be the focal point of everything this offense does.
For pass catchers, Aiyuk is joined by Deebo Samuel and George Kittle in a reasonably concentrated situation. Yes, all three are good, and obviously, CMC is nothing short of elite, but this team really doesn’t have a reliable WR3 option, and that helps funnel the targets to the stars on this roster.
Kyle Shanahan is entering his seventh season as San Francisco’s head coach, and during his tenure, the 49ers rank 29th in pass rate. This team wins with defense and the consistency of McCaffrey. Yet, that puts more risk on these pass catchers than their raw talent suggests.
Is Aiyuk a Good Fantasy Pick?
For me, Aiyuk is a fine pick at his ADP and the best of the San Francisco pass catchers at cost. I’d even be open to the idea of drafting him ahead of where he is going, even though our PFN consensus rankings value him about a round lower than his current average draft position. Nevertheless, you need to build your roster accordingly.
- PFN Consensus: 74th overall
- ADP: 64th overall
No matter how good I think Aiyuk is, San Francisco’s offense is not built for pass catchers, so you need to build depth and be aware that dud weeks are an inevitability.
𝗥𝗘𝗣𝗢𝗥𝗧#49ers WR Brandon Aiyuk has been ‘unguardable’ throughout training camp this year.
One source within the team tells us that “Brock Purdy has his superstar wideout… 1,200 yards is the floor of our expectations.”
— NFL Notifications (@NFLNotify) August 7, 2023
In his third season, Aiyuk earned targets on 21.5% of his routes, a nice jump up from 17.3% the year prior. As long as the promise we saw from Purdy down the stretch of last season is sustained, drafting Aiyuk is certainly something I am comfortable doing.