It has been a little quiet on the Brandon Aiyuk trade front over the last 24 hours. After two-straight days of non-stop updates from various NFL insiders, things appear to have come to a standstill.
The latest is that the Pittsburgh Steelers’ best offer was not an “acceptable trade package” for the San Francisco 49ers, and that the deal for Aiyuk may have also come in too low. At the end of the day, all three parties need to agree on a deal as Aiyuk has veto power given that he has to sign an extension with the recipient team.
There have been reports that the 49ers are interested in both draft picks and a player that can help them win now, while Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Gerry Dulac reported that the Steelers were only offering draft picks. It makes sense for the 49ers, who lost the Super Bowl in overtime last year. Losing Aiyuk would make them a worse team by default, so they are trying to mitigate that loss with a player who could help their 2024 team.
Herm Edwards was Aiyuk’s head coach during his time at Arizona State in college. Edwards joined The Morning Roast on 95.7 The Game out of San Francisco to discuss the Aiyuk situation and offered an interesting perspective given how familiar he is with the player. Edwards was asked if they can still salvage the relationship between Aiyuk and the 49ers to come to terms on a new deal.
“Absolutely,” Edwards said. “This is business, and this is what you tell every player when you’re the head coach…Just watch what happens during these negotiations if it gets into the news cycle and you’re gonna have to deal with all that.”
Up until this past Monday, the 49ers had remained pretty steadfast in their messaging that they wanted to keep Aiyuk for the long term and were continuing to work toward a deal.
Obviously those talks reached an impasse where the 49ers have been listening to offers from a variety of teams and even reportedly had the structure of some deals in place with the Cleveland Browns and New England Patriots. Reports indicate the Patriots dropped out of that discussion when it became clear Aiyuk didn’t want to go to New England.
Aiyuk stated he could see himself playing for three teams during The Pivot podcast at the end of June: the Steelers, 49ers, and the Washington Commanders. To this point, the Commanders have seemed uninterested in getting involved, perhaps because the asking price with both the trade value and the contract value are too high.
If Aiyuk wants to go to the Steelers, but they aren’t offering enough with either the trade or the contract, that has the potential to force Aiyuk back to the negotiating table with the 49ers.
Edwards was asked if, at the end of the day, Aiyuk would like to return to San Francisco.
“Absolutely,” Edwards said. “Brandon likes to win and he wants to win, and why not? You’re on a winning team and you got a team that obviously every year is picked, whether one or two, to go to the Super Bowl to represent the NFC.”
So is it about the money or being on a team that has a chance to compete? Edwards, knowing Aiyuk well, thinks competing is definitely important to him. Which might explain why he reportedly nixed a deal that would have made him among the top paid at the position with the Patriots.
Despite the optimism that Aiyuk and the 49ers may eventually reach a deal, Edwards noted that both sides will need to move on if they continue to be at an impasse. The season begins in less than a month from now, and Aiyuk has dominated the San Francisco news cycle for months now. Even more so over the last few days.
The Steelers were labeled the favorites to land Aiyuk by NFL Network’s insiders, but it has been repeatedly noted throughout the process that the situation is very fluid. Hopefully there is a conclusion soon, one way or the other.
