With wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk seeking a new contract from the San Francisco 49ers, he’s become a hot name to watch as a trade commodity. Given the Pittsburgh Steelers’ need for a wide receiver and a tweet to Mike Tomlin from Aiyuk last month, the trade rumors have been heating up as the NFL draft approaches. On PFT Live today, Mike Florio addressed the possibility of a Steelers-49ers trade involving Aiyuk and said it wouldn’t happen until the Steelers are on the clock at No. 20 in the first round.
“If a deal is going to happen that would send, for example, let’s just keep it simple, Brandon Aiyuk to the Steelers for the 20th overall pick, if that’s gonna happen, it’s not gonna happen until the 20th overall pick is on the clock. The 49ers step right in, and they run the board without anyone trying to figure out what they’re doing with that 20th pick,” Florio said.
Florio said he “can’t rule out the possibility” of the Steelers trading for Aiyuk, but it would be out of character for the team and surprising, especially with Pittsburgh’s success drafting and developing wide receivers.
There are a number of hurdles when it comes to the Steelers trading for Aiyuk. The most obvious one is that the Steelers would have to turn around and give Aiyuk a contract extension, and it’s rare that the team would pay top-of-the-line money for a wide receiver who hasn’t been in the organization. The 49ers also seem reluctant to trade Aiyuk, as general manager John Lynch said yesterday that they want him to spend his whole career with the team. Coupled with the potential compensation of a first-round pick for a Steelers team that also has needs at center, offensive tackle and cornerback, and it might be too rich of a price to pay.
Aiyuk is a game-changing receiver though, and he’s coming off a 2023 season where he had 75 receptions for a career-high 1,342 yards and eight touchdowns. It was his second straight 1,000-plus-yard season, and he would instantly bolster Pittsburgh’s passing attack opposite George Pickens. If the Steelers made the move, it would probably be a good one, but it would be surprising and something we just haven’t seen from this organization. It sounds as if we’ll know whether or not a trade will or has happened by Thursday night when the NFL draft kicks off, but there’s always a chance something could happen on Friday if the compensation ends up being less than a first-round pick.
I think it’s unlikely that the Steelers pull of a trade for Aiyuk, but it’s definitely a situation to keeps tabs on during the week and throughout the draft.
