To kick off this year’s “Who Is?” series, Brandon Aiyuk might actually be the 49ers’ best straight wide receiver.

Welcome to the opening of Niner Noise’s “Who Is?” series, in which we break down every San Francisco 49ers player on the 90-man offseason roster and address the most pressing questions facing them as the regular season begins.

As this is always an alphabetical affair, it’s no surprise that wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk graces the beginning of this annual series.

And he could also secure the title of the Niners’ best pure wideout. With all due respect to All-Pro Deebo Samuel, who does a lot of things terribly well, Aiyuk is a superior route runner and far outperforms Samuel against man coverage.

If you spend just a little time watching both players’ All 22 movie, you’ll probably come to the same conclusion.

Aiyuk was a 1,000-yard receiver for the first time in his career last season and also led all San Francisco passers in that category.

Considering the 49ers also have top players like Samuel, tight end George Kittle and running back Christian McCaffrey vying for touches, Aiyuk’s performance is certainly notable. And he has every right to be frustrated with any criticism.

1k as a 4th option in a run first offense I’m as real as Lil Baby says and it’s awesome! I’m always ready to be in business. Year 4

— BA (@THE2ERA) March 21, 2023

The Niners have already accepted Aiyuk’s fifth-year option to play with them until 2024, but some uncertainty is looming.

Will this affect 2023? Or will some of the other question marks in San Francisco cause Aiyuk to go through some kind of regression after hitting career bests the year before?

In summary, Aiyuk showed promise in his rookie season before starting off a little slow in his sophomore year but really picking up steam in the second half.

Throughout 2022, fans got to see Aiyuk in full form.

ASU’s former first-round pick certainly benefited from Samuel having an All-Pro season the year before, and then the mid-season takeover of McCaffrey also helped ease some of the pressure on Aiyuk.

The only disagreement was with the quarterback. The 49ers played Trey Lance, Jimmy Garoppolo and Brock Purdy throughout the year.

While there’s still a lot of uncertainty at the center, Garoppolo was the one quarterback Aiyuk never really got along with and now he’s with the Las Vegas Raiders.

If Purdy returns from his offseason elbow injury and picks up where he left off with Aiyuk, the signs point to the receiver’s 2022 numbers being exceeded.

2021 showed that Aiyuk can be a mixed player. Sure, the 25-year-old receiver has now been fully entrenched in the system for three years and he’s the perfect complement to Samuel at the top of the wide receiver depth chart.

However, the Niners have plenty of mouths to feed… er, hands to put the ball in when it comes to offensive weapons. Going back through the talent list, everyone like Samuel, McCaffrey and Kittle can upset Aiyuk.

Would it be enough to stop Aiyuk from getting another 1,000-yard season?

Maybe, but considering San Francisco still doesn’t know who will start under the center this season, another X-Factor could potentially stand in the way of Aiyuk’s upward trend.

Still under his cheap rookie contract as he begins his pro career, Aiyuk has $3.987 million counted against the cap this season, according to Over the Cap. However, with his fully guaranteed fifth year option in 2024, that number rises to over $14 million.

The 49ers already spent big bucks on Samuel’s overtime in the 2022 offseason, and it’s rare for teams to pay two wideouts a lucrative sum of money at the same time. Admittedly, quarterbacking costs will remain low for the foreseeable future should the Niners fully commit to Purdy at center.

However, paying both Samuel and Aiyuk will be difficult in the long run.

Continue reading: ESPN points out the painful truth about Brandon Aiyuk and Deebo Samuel

This has led to some speculation that Aiyuk could be traded before that fifth-year option is exercised, possibly in a move that will see San Francisco look to “sell big” and some serious ones in exchange for an ascending receiver recover assets.

Or maybe Samuel will end up being the player to be moved if the 49ers favor Aiyuk’s general ability in a role while also appreciating McCaffrey’s versatile roles more.

However, as 2023 begins, Aiyuk will simply be a key cog in the Niners’ offense, and that’s where he’s at his best.

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Defending NFC West champions San Francisco 49ers have some key decisions to make as the offseason progresses.

Apparently one has already been done. 49ers general manager John Lynch spoke to the media Monday from the site of NFL owners’ meetings in Arizona and indicated that they will pick up the fifth-year option on wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk’s contract for the 2024 season.

This is by no means a surprise. Aiyuk, a 2020 49ers first-round pick, comes off a 2022 breakout campaign for San Francisco. He recorded 78 receptions for 1,015 yards and eight touchdowns while catching 68% of his goals.

If exercised, the 2024 option on Aiyuk’s rookie deal will cost $14.1 million. According to ESPN’s Nick Wagoner, this has led to teams actually calling San Francisco to trade in for the young star receiver. At this point, San Francisco has no real interest in moving Aiyuk.

After back-to-back NFC Championship Game appearances, it makes little sense for San Francisco to lay down one of its most important weapons. However, the question certainly arises as to whether the 49ers can afford to sign Aiyuk long-term.

San Francisco 49ers salary cap and star players

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SAN FRANCISCO — Deebo Samuel, star wide receiver for the San Francisco 49ers who caught more than 1,400 yards last season, has reportedly asked for a trade.

Samuel, 26, told ESPN reporter Jeff Darlington on Wednesday he asked the team to trade him. Samuel said he did not want to discuss his reasoning for the request.

Samuel, who played at South Carolina in college and was drafted in the second round by the 49ers in 2019, finished fifth in the league in receiving yards last season with 1,405 and added six touchdowns. He was one of the league’s most explosive players, notching nine catches of more than 40 yards, tied for the league lead.

A dynamic threat, Samuel also added 365 yards rushing last season and eight rushing touchdowns. Samuel finished 10th in the NFL in rushing touchdowns.

In his six career postseason games, Samuel caught 281 yards and a touchdown, and rushed for 239 yards and a touchdown.

ESPN’s Adam Schefter previously reported that the 49ers wanted to pay Samuel, who is in the last year of his rookie contract. But Samuel, who skipped off-season workouts, removed the 49ers logos from his social media page and made it known he wanted to change teams.

“It’s not San Francisco not willing to do the deal, the 49ers are ready,” Schefter said at the time. “Deebo Samuel is the one who has put a halt to everything right now.”

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But a new analysis of 20 metropolitan areas in the US shows how much larger this gap is growing here compared to other major employment hubs, fueling political and legal controversy over the area’s infamous pricelessness and strict building codes.

For every new home approved in the San Francisco and San Jose metropolitan areas from 2009 to 2019, more than three jobs were created, according to a report by the libertarian think tank Manhattan Institute released on Wednesday. In San Francisco, home to the worst “job-housing mismatch” in the cities surveyed, nearly 3.5 new jobs were created for every new home. There were 3.2 jobs in San Jose.

Outside California, each new housing permit was equivalent to 1.7 jobs in Denver, 1.5 in Austin, and 1 in Durham.

“Many of the successful subways are struggling to move the residential structure to accommodate higher density,” wrote Eric Kober, Senior Fellow of the Manhattan Institute, the author of the study. “There are increasing measures being taken at the state and local levels to remove the many regulatory barriers preventing new housing from being built.”

Still, the separation between jobs and housing has proven lucrative for some in the Bay Area. Housing prices, rents and average income rose faster here than in most other cities in the same period.

However, the pressure is mounting for households bringing in less than $ 75,000 a year. Workers in the metropolitan areas of San Jose and San Francisco are being forced to spend more of their income on housing than in almost any other place, Kober found – a difficult balancing act that could jeopardize the economic future of both the Bay Area and the rest of the country.

“If high-wage, high-productivity subways exclude many of the workers who want to work there but cannot find apartments that meet their needs and that they can afford,” wrote Kober, “the economy will grow less than they”. could have.”

The idea of ​​dense development has long been controversial in much of the Bay Area. Many of the same single-family neighborhoods where home prices soared to record highs during the pandemic have concerns about traffic, greenhouse gases, and neighborhood character. For a new generation of Yes-In-My-Backyard housing advocates, the question is how long should homeowners be allowed to win while potential buyers and renters remain trapped in cutthroat competition.

As the Manhattan Institute report shows – with its eagerness to expose the pitfalls of regulation – housing anxiety has become so extreme that ideological boundaries are being blurred. In the Bay Area, growth-friendly urbanists and anti-regulatory libertarians are now routinely asking longtime homeowners, environmentalists, realtors and “housing” policymakers about where to build homes most believed are desperately needed.

“In the end, you have this problem of collective action,” said Laura Foote, managing director of the YIMBY Action lobby group, which works for the housing industry. “Every city wants to say, ‘Well, put the next city over it.'”

Housing shortages aren’t quick or easy to fix – and they’re getting worse in top Bay Area transplant destinations like Austin. But tensions will boil over in the coming months as the process of drawing up local housing plans to meet new government building goals continues.

State officials are currently calling on the Bay Area to plan an unprecedented 441,176 new homes between 2023 and 2031 under the Regional Housing Needs Allocation program. As part of this program, the Association of Bay Area Governments then awards local housing mandates to cities, towns, and counties.

At least half a dozen local governments are already considering their options to appeal their mandates to reduce the number of new homes being built. It is uncharted territory after the government program has been strengthened in recent years to require cities to “promote affirmatively fair housing” and impose new penalties for non-compliance – a prospect that Palo Alto Mayor Tom DuBois, warned, could spark “a revolt of the cities”. “

Proponents like Foote want to increase pressure on California cities that have lagged behind new housing targets for decades, and instead aim to build new high-income housing or tie controversial projects in lengthy scrutiny processes.

“It’s like pushing the broccoli around on your plate,” said Foote. “We can’t let it go on.”

Such a battle over local building plans came to a head Tuesday evening in Corte Madera, a suburb of North Bay, where the city council voted to appeal its current direction to build 725 new homes. The city has already approved more housing than was needed in the past six years – 270 new homes, including 195 for high-income residents, according to city records – so officials argue that the city should only build 500 homes around the time.

“Corte Madera has demonstrated its commitment to carefully planning, facilitating and integrating new housing developments into our community and helping to address the region’s affordability and equity issues,” the city council wrote in a letter to the state housing authorities. The letter also cited a lack of public transport, flood risks, and a forecast that the city could actually lose jobs in the years to come to justify the appeal.

Even renters who can afford the average Corte Madera rent of $ 4,000 per month are increasingly voicing the lack of long-term options in a city where the average home is currently $ 1.7 million is sold, according to the National Association of Realtors. Despite the environmental concerns voiced at Corte Madera’s residential appeal, research by the Bay Area Council shows that workers who are too expensive from the inner suburbs often travel longer distances for affordable housing, increasing traffic and emissions.

As the political gears turn, YIMBY Action is part of a housing coalition that is training 400 volunteer “Housing Watchdogs” across the state to keep tabs on housing plans in their own cities. The advocacy group is also suing the state for increasing housing needs and supporting state and local efforts to end single-family home zoning – an increasingly common proposal to tackle decades of housing segregation.

With nationwide housing reforms slow in implementation in a state famed for its defiance of “local control,” Foote expects a tangled web of bureaucratic appeals, lawsuits and activist campaigns as the Bay Area cities pave a way forward .

“Now we live by local control,” she said.

Lauren Hepler is a contributor to the San Francisco Chronicle. Email: lauren.hepler@sfchronicle.com; Twitter: @LAHepler

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