The Pittsburgh Steelers don’t have much proven depth at wide receiver without a trade, George Pickens being the name you know. You can forgive the average fan if they don’t know who Calvin Austin III, Van Jefferson, or Scotty Miller are. But are they willing to go into the season without doing something about it?
Ray Fittipaldo of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette believes they are, despite arguing that they need help. That seems to be an increasingly growing view on the subject, with time ticking away on addressing the position. The Steelers did turn over the wide receiver room pretty extensively, but they did it on a budget, and without a trade. Even last year, the Steelers traded for Allen Robinson II.
“They’re willing to go into the season with the guys that they have if the price is too steep for a legit No. 2 receiver”, Fittipaldo said regarding the Steelers’ feeling about their wide receiver room, appearing on 93.7 The Fan yesterday. “I don’t see Omar [Khan] coming off that price. I think, just as he does in contract negotiations, he has a price for what he thinks players are worth”.
Outside of Pickens, the Steelers have Austin, Jefferson, Miller, Quez Watkins, and Marquez Callaway as their most notable wide receivers, along with rookie third-round pick Roman Wilson. Absent Wilson, they are all relative journeymen wide receivers with up to one season of solid production. They are all here on the cheapest possible contracts, or close enough to not make a difference. That’s why so many keep bringing the Steelers up in trade talks for wide receivers.
The big name in question is, of course, San Francisco 49ers WR Brandon Aiyuk. We have seen the Steelers connected to trade rumors for him before, but how true are they? There were reports that the Steelers had a trade worked out for him or Deebo Samuel before the draft, but the deal fell through.
Aiyuk is going into his fifth season, playing under his fifth-year option. He just recently formally requested a trade, but the 49ers have no desire to oblige. The Steelers saw first-hand last year what he could do, especially Patrick Peterson.
But what are they willing to pay for him? Because they have to pay not only Aiyuk, but also the 49ers. The Steelers need to trade for him and then sign him to a top-of-the-mark contract extension. And considering they haven’t done it yet, it’s hard to imagine them changing without something else changing.
“You can go back to that Cam Sutton negotiation last year. Once the compensation for the Lions got up around $11 million, they were like, ‘Hey, congrats, go make some money, but we can’t pay you that’”, Fittipaldo said, referring to the Steelers parting with Sutton in free agency in 2023 despite wanting to keep him.
“I think it’s the same thing when you’re talking about trades like this. [The Steelers] have a price in mind of what they’ll want to pay Brandon Aiyuk. And they’ll have a price in mind also in terms of what a player or draft pick compensation”.
So what is that price, and will it cost both a player and a draft pick? How high are the Steelers willing to go to get Brandon Aiyuk from the 49ers, and how much are they willing to pay him? Perhaps what they see from the rest of the wide receivers will raise their bidding ceiling.
