After the Pittsburgh Steelers restructured OLB Alex Highsmith’s contract, all everybody could think of was that the Steelers were gearing up for a big trade. The name on everyone’s mind? San Francisco 49ers WR Brandon Aiyuk. There’s been plenty of smoke surrounding Aiyuk and the Steelers this offseason, but it was difficult to gauge Pittsburgh’s interest. Now that the Steelers made a move to clear up more cap space, there’s only more fuel to the rumor mill fire.
But will the Steelers really make that big of a move and rewrite their entire draft weekend in the process? The Athletic’s Mark Kaboly is not too bullish on that prospect. He joined The Fan Morning Show on Thursday to talk about the draft. One of the questions he fielded was the chances of Aiyuk being a Steeler by the end of the day.
“21.7,” Kaboly said of the odds before host Adam Crowley expressed his optimism. “Maybe it’s still too high, then…I just think there’s going to be multiple suitors, and somebody is going to give him that first-round pick that they seek. Don’t you go to the guy who has the highest first-round pick?”
The 49ers have expressed their desire to keep Aiyuk for the long term, but the prospect of getting a high first-round pick is always a tempting one. The Steelers are sitting at 20th overall which is a nice pick, but there are other teams ahead of them in the draft looking for a wide receiver. Teams will be forced to choose between a young, cost-controlled rookie wide receiver versus a proven veteran seeking a big-time payday. At what point do teams think that is a worthwhile deal, and at what point do the 49ers say that pick isn’t high enough?
However, another name cropped up in the potential wide receiver trade market: Denver Broncos WR Courtland Sutton. He would be intriguing for two reasons: lower cost than Aiyuk and experience with Russell Wilson. While both the trade cost and financial cost are still to be determined, it’s likely that Sutton will cost less than Aiyuk in both arenas.
As for playing with Wilson, Sutton had his best year ever in terms of receiving touchdowns in 2023 with ten. Supposedly the two are on good terms, so there’s built-in chemistry there.
Overall, Kaboly thinks there’s a coinflip’s chance that the Steelers will trade for a wide receiver at some point this weekend.
“I don’t know if it’ll be a trade today,” Kaboly said. “Trade overall in this three-day span? I’d say there’s probably a 50 percent chance. I’m not saying absolutely today.”
So Kaboly thinks that there’s as likely a chance as there isn’t for the Steelers to make a trade for a wide receiver at some point over the three days of the 2024 NFL Draft. And while he doesn’t think there’s even a good chance that it’s for Brandon Aiyuk, he isn’t completely ruling that out, either.
What we can be sure of is that the Steelers are working to add a wide receiver either through the draft itself or by trading for one during the draft.
