The trade rumors surrounding San Francisco 49ers WR Brandon Aiyuk feel endless. At this point, it doesn’t seem as if anyone knows where things are headed, but if Aiyuk is traded, the Pittsburgh Steelers remain a likely destination for him. Ray Fittipaldo of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette believes that Aiyuk will end up in Pittsburgh, putting the odds that Aiyuk is traded to the Steelers at 80%.
“It seems like it’s coming to a head. If I had to put a percentage on it, if it’s gonna happen, the Steelers are pretty much the only team left standing, so I would say at this point, 80/20 that it happens,” Fittipaldo said on The PM Team on 93.7 The Fan.
He also said landing Aiyuk could be the “first domino” for the Steelers before they look to improve their current 53-man roster, so it sounds as if he anticipates a trade happening in the coming days.
With training camp and the preseason over and rosters set, now is the time when teams really start to ramp up for the start of the season. Aiyuk has been absent from 49ers practice the last two days, even with the team expecting him to practice yesterday. That could wind up being the straw that breaks the camel’s back when it comes to the 49ers potentially dealing Aiyuk. If he is traded, he’s expressed that he could see himself playing in Pittsburgh.
Aiyuk would be a massive upgrade to Pittsburgh’s wide receiver room, one that would go from one of the worst in the league to a group that has one of the best tandems in the NFL with Aiyuk and George Pickens. The two would complement each other well and adding Aiyuk would assuage a lot of fears about Pittsburgh’s passing attack.
While Fittipaldo cites the Steelers as the last team standing for why the odds are so high, that doesn’t mean that other teams can’t jump into the process. The Washington Commanders were also a team Aiyuk said he’d play for, and they recently moved on from WR Jahan Dotson, so there’s a chance they could enter the fray. The Cleveland Browns could also re-enter the mix, although the hold-up with Cleveland was the fact that Aiyuk simply didn’t want to play for the Browns. Unless that’s changed, they won’t be landing him.
At this point, it doesn’t seem like Aiyuk wants to stay in San Francisco. If the team will trade him, it does seem as if Pittsburgh is the most logical and obvious landing spot. But with how many twists and turns this has taken throughout August, nothing is a given when it comes to Aiyuk’s future.
