The NFL announced the expansion of its Global Markets Program, adding four new NFL teams and two new markets.
The Ravens, Packers, Chargers and Commanders are the new teams to gain international marketing rights in other countries. The Ravens were granted rights in the United Kingdom, the Packers in Germany, Ireland and the United Kingdom, the Chargers in Greece and the Commanders in the United Arab Emirates.
Greece and the United Arab Emirates are the new markets for 2025.
The Rams and 49ers, along with the Commanders, now have international marketing rights in the United Arab Emirates.
The NFL is interested in the possibility of playing a regular-season game in Abu Dhabi.
“We don’t know the timing, and it’s really an ‘if’ in terms of whether we’ll play a game there,” said Peter O’Reilly, the NFL’s executive vice president, club business, major events and international. “But I will say is that’s a market where there’s strong interest in our game, strong interest in growing our game on a year-round basis. I think that’s why you see three clubs raising their hands with interest there. It’s a market we’ll continue to explore. We’ve done some exploratory trips there to understand the viability of the potential for a regular-season game in the market. We have more work to go there in terms of what that looks like over this next stretch. But obviously an important market and one that has hosted significant events in other sports in recent years whether that’s NBA or global soccer. There are learnings there, but we really do it as we try to do all these markets in the right, thoughtful cadence way.”
In total, 29 clubs will participate in the global markets program across 21 international markets — up from 25 clubs across 19 markets in 2024 — as the NFL continues to prioritize global growth.
The NFL will play seven games outside the country in 2025 and could expand in 2026.
Word over the weekend was that the 49ers are unlikely to trade wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk this offseason and General Manager John Lynch confirmed it on Monday.
Aiyuk was nearly traded to the Steelers before signing a long-term deal with the team last year and there was thought that they’d like to move him before paying a $22.85 million bonus on Tuesday. While speaking to reporters from the league meetings in Palm Beach, Lynch said that he expects Aiyuk to remain with the team and added that he has “no regrets” about the decision to make a commitment to the wideout.
“We love Brandon Aiyuk as a football player,” Lynch said, via Nick Wagoner of ESPN.com. “We did when we drafted him and we’re excited to move forward with him.”
Any bid to trade Aiyuk was going to be complicated by the torn ACL he suffered during the 2024 season and Lynch said, via multiple reporters, that he recently had a positive checkup although it remains to be seen exactly when he’ll be cleared to resume football activities.
As the 49ers’ 2024 season wound down, defensive end Nick Bosa tried to find a bright side to missing the playoffs.
Bosa said he was looking forward to having a full offseason after seeing the previous three truncated by the team’s deep postseason runs. They made it to at least the NFC title game each year and Bosa said it was “definitely a grind” to miss out on having more time off.
Quarterback Brock Purdy likely agrees with Bosa’s feelings about a longer offseason. During an appearance on the Built 4 More podcast, Purdy said he thought fatigue played a big role in the 49ers’ drop to 6-11 last season.
“And then last year, man, guys were tired,” Purdy said, via 49ersWebzone.com. “That season is no joke, and when you go from July of training and everything, all the way to the end of February, and then you really get five weeks off or so [until] you’ve got to report back, and then you’re going again, guys are tired. They’re still beat up, their bodies.”
The 49ers will have more time to recuperate this year, but they’ll also have to adapt to significant changes to the roster on both sides of the ball if they are going to return to the top rungs of the NFC.
Teams that intend to keep their free agents usually get the deals done before another team has a chance to catch his eye. The 49ers didn’t do that as to linebacker Dre Greenlaw, and by the time they mobilized it was too late.
In an article from Luca Evans of the Denver Post regarding the process that resulted in Greenlaw landing with the Broncos, Evans reports that 49ers G.M. John Lynch and coach Kyle Shanahan flew to Greenlaw’s home in Texas in an effort to keep him. The 49ers also increased their offer.
“That was, like, a last-ditch effort,” Greenlaw’s adoptive father Brian Early told Evans.
But it was too late. Greenlaw had been courted by the Broncos, and he’d made up his mind.
Greenlaw’s agent, J.R. Carroll, separately told Evans that Greenlaw sensed an opportunity to have a “fresh start” with an ascending defense in Denver. Another factor was the fact that the 49ers have been losing plenty of players.
One who’s staying was Greenlaw’s partner at middle linebacker, Fred Warner.
“It just looked different when him and I were going after other teams from the second level, and just trying to erase space in the middle of the field,” Warner told Evans. “He’s, by far, one of the greatest athletes and football players I’ve ever played with, and it was truly an honor to play alongside him. . . . I even told him, and I always say, that I would not be the player that I am today without playing alongside Dre Greenlaw.”
Greenlaw’s adoptive father saw it a little differently.
“Hey, man, you stay in San Francisco, you’re Scottie Pippen,” Early told Greenlaw. “And Fred Warner is [Michael Jordan]. . . . Go be frickin’ MJ.”
Greenlaw now gets the chance to do just that.
The 49ers are surely wishing they’d traded receiver Brandon Aiyuk when they had the chance.
They could have. It was happening. Aiyuk was about to be a Steeler. Then, he expressed a willingness to accept the 49ers’ best offer on a long-term deal, and coach Kyle Shanahan literally ran upstairs to keep the trade from going through.
The end result was a contract that now ties the 49ers’ hands. No other team will be taking on the balance of the deal, given Aiyuk’s injury.
Earlier today, Adam Schefter of ESPN.com pointed out that, once the 49ers pay Aiyuk a $22.85 million bonus due on Tuesday, “any trade talks would be off.” But they were never on, given that a new team would have to pay that amount to a player who might or might not be ready to go in 2026.
There’s another important wrinkle in the contract. As of Tuesday, a $24.95 million 2026 option bonus becomes fully guaranteed.
With Aiyuk still recovering from the ACL tear, and given that he wasn’t exactly tearing it up before the injury, no one would take on his deal at this point.
Could the 49ers simply cut their losses and move on from Aiyuk, before the extra $24.95 million vests? Nope. Because Aiyuk currently can’t pass a physical, and because the payment is already guaranteed for injury, they’d still owe him the money, even if they cut him.
So, yeah, the 49ers regret this one. Whether they’ll ever admit it is a different issue. Then again, do they need to?
