For the second year in a row, an Arizona State wide receiver had been selected in the first round of the NFL Draft. The San Francisco 49ers traded up six spots with the Minnesota Vikings in order to select Brandon Aiyuk with the 25th pick.

49ers’ General Manager, John Lynch, told reporters post-draft that he was shocked to see Aiyuk still on the board, "We never had any intention of moving up in this draft," Lynch said to NBC Sports' Mike Tirico on Tirico’s Tuesday "Lunch Talk Live” show. "It was all about moving back to accrue some more picks. But when Aiyuk fell past Philly, we started scrambling on the phones, saying here's a guy we might have taken at 13 had Kinlaw not been there and some other things."

Think about that last quote from Lynch for a second... The San Francisco 49ers contemplated taking Aiyuk with the 13th pick of the draft. In what might have been the deepest wide receiver draft in history, with players like Jerry Jeudy, Ceedee Lamb, Jalen Reagor, and Justin Jefferson still available, a team was considering taking a former two-star Junior College product who had only received two Power 5 offers before signing with ASU.

I had the luxury of seeing just how talented of a football player Brandon Aiyuk was while doing work on the sidelines for Devils Digest last season. Aiyuk statistically lead the Sun Devil offense in almost every single receiving category last fall, and after the draft, I wanted to know more about how Aiyuk went from a high school defensive back to an NFL first round pick at wide receiver. I spent this past week interviewing some of Aiyuk’s former coaches, a former teammate, and an ASU beat writer to find my answers.

After attending Robert McQueen High School in Reno, Nevada, Brandon Aiyuk went on to play for Coach Noonan at Sierra College in Rocklin, California.

How did you see Brandon progressively get better the moment he stepped onto campus at Sierra to the time he left for ASU?

Coach Noonan: Brandon is a humble, yet confident young man. He was a defensive back in high school, and we convinced him to play wide receiver here for us. His freshman year he was behind two wide receivers that went D1, so he did not start until the fourth game of 2016 and he never looked back after that. He always had incredible work ethic, loved the weight room, and embraced the off season between his freshman and sophomore seasons. He was a rare talent, who is a coach's dream because he loved to practice and insisted on being part of special teams. His freshman year, he ended up an All-League performer, and his sophomore season (2017) he was an All-American for us.

What did you see in Brandon’s play and/or athleticism that made you want to switch him from his High school position of DB to a WR?

Coach Noonan: In the return game in high school, special teams and on interceptions, he just pulled away from people and was so dynamic with the ball in his hands.

I grew up in Santa Rosa watching the 49ers, and close friend of mine is the defensive line coach there so I could not be more ecstatic about him landing with San Francisco. Close to home and I can see some games!

Coach Noonan wanted me to clarify that the reason none of Aiyuk's teammates went wild after he jumped over his teammate in the video above, is because Ayuik would consistently do this sort of thing all the time in practice. That's how freakishly athletic Brandon Aiyuk is. His teammates just expected things like this.

Will Brocchini played his freshman season at Sierra College with Aiyuk.

You recently said in a tweet that Brandon Aiyuk was the toughest Wide Receiver to cover at practice, what made him special?

Will Brocchini: What made him special was his playmaking ability. His speed, size and the range he makes up was just ridiculous. His ability to stride away from you on a vertical route was something I could never understand. I'd be running with him and then all of a sudden he hits this next gear and would take off. He’s a very long, fast and explosive receiver that knew how to run his routes accordingly. No doubt Brandon made me a hundred times better as a player lining up against him for a whole season!

Coach Fisher was Aiyuk’s position coach at Arizona State during the 2018 and 2019 seasons. Coach Fisher gave one of the best interviews I’ve ever had, and our entire interview will be available to listen to on the ArizonaVarsity.com TeamAZV message board.

With Brandon’s recruitment, you guys were really the only Power 5 school coming after this guy. He was ranked as a low two-star receiver by Rivals, and the only other Power 5 school that had offered was Kansas. What made you coaches, as a staff, trust the film, and trust him, to recruit him so hard?

Fisher: In recruiting there’s one rule that always says, “Trust your eyes,” and I can tell you right now the thing that stood out about his recruitment was that Rob (Likens) saw Brandon (Aiyuk) practice or play… Rob saw him in person. Anytime when you can see a guy in person, that usually will seal the deal one way or another. When you can see them work. You know what you saw on tape, it didn’t lie. When you’re experienced and you’ve done it enough, you really kind of know what you’re looking for and what stands out to you. All the same things you just mentioned; his explosiveness… him growing into the sport and playing it more, playing the position more. Brandon would be the first person to tell you that he grew up as a running back, so he had to make the transition to wide-out… So when you recruit a guy that has the running back skills that can transition to play wide-out, most of them have the skill level with the ball in their hands to make people miss, that’s why they were a running back. Now if they can transition to run routes and do those things which are different, because a lot of running backs don’t run routes down the field that much, and Brandon obviously transitioned to that. He had such a high ceiling Cody, he was only going to get better.

When Brandon came into the program, you guys had a loaded receiving room at ASU that had N’keal Harry, so obviously Aiyuk wasn’t the #1 target. Last season, he became that that guy for you, and lit it up. How did you see Brandon improve from the moment he stepped on campus in Tempe, to when he was done last season?

Fisher: Obviously, we thought Brandon would be a very very good player when he came in. In the first half of the season in 2018 he did some nice things, obviously we had N’keal, we had Frank Darby, we had Kyle Williams, we had a loaded room with a lot of talent. I can remember we were in a practice in pre-season where he made a play and Rob (Likens) looked at me and said ‘Baller Alert.’ We started laughing, and you could see right there that this guy had difference making skills. It was really just a matter of him (Aiyuk) getting comfortable with the system and continuing to gain confidence. I remember when he really kind of broke out against Stanford (2018), you could see it… the game when he really started to put his stamp on his improvement was Utah (2018), played really well against Utah in the game in Tempe where we beat them. When N’keal declared for the draft, I think that was the spring board to his (Aiyuk’s) ultimate success because it gave him so much confidence in the Fresno State bowl game (2018). You could just see this guy (Aiyuk), he was ready. He knew going into that game that without N’keal, he’s getting the ball because of targets, and he took advantage of it. I think more than anything he (Aiyuk) proved himself that “Listen, I’m the #1 and I’m here to stay.” He doubled that up with a really good Spring, worked his tail off last Summer…You could just see the look in his eyes, that twinkle, just as a coach you could kind of tell when a guy is really starting to get super confidence in his skills and his skill set. I just really had no doubt. I know me and Rob (Likens) sat there and talked about it, we knew he was ready to take off.

What's the thing that Brandon Aiyuk does best on the field?

Somerville: Open field ability, true playmaker with ball in his hands after the catch. Releases were definitely special.. would’ve thought the guy was 5’9 180 slot with how he moved his feet.

What's the most incredible thing that you saw Brandon Aiyuk do on the field?

Roschmann: Hard not to pick the Oregon play, but in practice he was neat to watch because his feet were so much better than anyone else’s. WR coach always preached to all the kids to keep their releases simple and not to freestyle it. He let Aiyuk do pretty much what he wanted because he was good enough. His ceiling is incredibly high. 49ers will know that as well as anyone since they have Freddie Gammage there. He’s still learning football and how good of a player he is, will be awesome to watch him.

Hod is the longest-tenured Arizona State football and basketball beat writer, and is an ASU Sports encyclopedia.

Brandon Aiyuk put up monster numbers last season, as he lead the ASU receiving core in receptions, yards and was tied for receiving touchdowns. How big of an impact did Aiyuk have on that Sun Devil offense last season?

Hod Rabino: After N'keal Harry skipped his senior year to enter the NFL draft in 2019, the spotlight shined extremely bright on Brandon Aiyuk as everybody wondered if he could pick up the slack from one of the best wide receivers to ever play for the Sun Devils. Fast forward one year later and perhaps even the most optimistic ASU fan could not have imagined how well Aiyuk did being the featured aerial target for ASU. His 1,192 receiving yards are fifth-most in an ASU single season, and when you figure in the fact that Aiyuk played at ASU for only two years with his first one being totally overshadowed by Harry, that's even more impressive. Add in the fact that he was able to net a first team All Pac-12 selection in a conference known for elite wide receivers is another big feather in his cap, as well as earning first-team league honors as a returner on special teams, which highlights his versatility that much more. Naturally, that did not go unnoticed on the San Francisco 49ers draft board which had him as one of its prime targets.

As talented as a quarterback that Jayden Daniels is, early on in his freshman campaign he wasn't as adept at dissecting defenses or connecting on a consistent basis with downfield targets. This is why Brandon Aiyuk was able to flourish because he would get the ball in a lot in those high percentage throws, short and intermediate routes, that not only made Daniels more comfortable but also allowed Aiyuk to take full advantage of his biggest trait and display his explosiveness getting the ball in space.

Sun Devil followers are now asking the same question they had last year just with a different wide receiver mentioned - How does ASU replace the production of Brandon Aiyuk? And that's probably the biggest compliment you can get as a player.