What Happened: The San Francisco 49ers’ defense of their NFC crown is off to a bumpy start. Star left tackle Trent Williams is currently holding out of training camp while he seeks a raise in pay. Williams is no stranger to playing the long game, so it seems unlikely he’ll cave before the Niners do.

Now, word out of San Francisco is that, in a reversal by the team’s front office, not only will they listen to trade offers for dynamic wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk, but they’ve given him permission to negotiate a new deal with any teams interested in his services. It certainly seems like Aiyuk’s already got one cleat out the door.

Why It Matters: Fans of the Patriots and Browns, the two teams cited most frequently as Aiyuk’s likely trade destinations, will love this development. But what about the rest of those NFL fans? What are they to make of this?

Here’s a thought: does an Aiyuk trade make him a more viable candidate for an end-of-season award?

To be clear, the MVP award is solely the domain of quarterbacks these days. But non-throwers have the Offensive Player of the Year award to compete for, and a receiver has won that three times in the last five seasons.

Aiyuk’s currents odds to capture that award, per ESPN Bet? +10000, a fair bit down the pecking order. 41 players currently have better odds, including 18 other wideouts, as-of-now teammate Deebo Samuel included.

But those are odds on Aiyuk in an offense in which he has to share one football with Christian McCaffrey, Samuel, George Kittle, and whatever Kyle Shanahan cooks up for Kyle Juszczyk. Aiyuk would become a one-man band on a team such as the Patriots, potentially boosting his stats to legit contender status.

Aiyuk finished seventh in the NFL in receiving yards despite San Francisco’s stacked depth chart. He would surely lose something without Shanahan’s play-calling wizardry, but his target volume could go up substantially, perhaps even to an award-winning level.