The Brandon Aiyuk saga is finally over. After five long months of speculation and waves of rumors that suddenly reached a standstill for the three weeks leading up to the deal, Aiyuk signed a reported four year, $120 million extension to remain with the San Francisco 49ers. I will admit that it is a relief to no longer have to hear about Aiyuk’s hold-in on every television program, but the Pittsburgh Steelers are now left with a problem.
Omar Khan created a missing piece to the Steelers’ puzzle in March when he traded Diontae Johnson to the Carolina Panthers. Some believe the situation with Johnson became untenable, or it could just be that the Steelers valued a player like CB Donte Jackson enough — at another position of need — to pull the trigger. Regardless, the offense is left with an issue that might be tricky to solve.
Johnson played in 13 games last season, with two of those being less than 50 percent of the Steelers’ total offensive snaps, and he still caught 51 passes for 717 yards and 5 touchdowns. At his best, he was a 107-catch, 1,161-yard receiver with 8 touchdowns. That is borderline WR1 production that the Steelers shipped away to the Panthers.
An argument can be made that TE Pat Freiermuth is effectively the WR2, but it remains to be seen if he can operate on that level of production. His best season came in 2022 with 63 receptions on 98 targets for 732 yards and 2 touchdowns. He only managed to play 41.8-percent of the Steelers’ offensive snaps last season, and he played a career-high 64.1-percent of the Steelers’ offensive snaps in 2022.
While I think Freiermuth is capable of WR2 production, it is a bit of a projection based on his three-year career thus far.
The Steelers kept five wide receivers on their initial 53-man roster. Those being George Pickens, Van Jefferson, Roman Wilson, Calvin Austin III and Scotty Miller. That is just two receivers that have extensive experience on the outside and three undersized speedsters that operate primarily out of the slot. If Pickens gets injured for any length of time, it would be catastrophic to the Steelers’ offense. Even if Jefferson was forced to miss time, it would be a significant blow.
Now that the Steelers’ season is 10 days away from beginning, finding receiver help is going to be tricky.
Teams just finished setting their 53-man rosters on Tuesday. Most franchises aren’t going to want to part ways with significant pieces this late in the process, and certainly not for cheap.
It wouldn’t be unprecedented for an in-season trade to happen. The Steelers brought in Minkah Fitzpatrick in 2019 for a first-round pick after the first week of the season. That trade worked wonders for the Steelers’ defense that year and continues to pay off to this day.
There are some names out there, like Deebo Samuel, DK Metcalf and Courtland Sutton, but you can pretty easily come up with reasons why none of those are probable.
Metcalf has not been linked to any serious trade rumors all offseason. The only mention of him was due to the Seattle Seahawks’ cap situation, but Seahawks beat writer Gregg Bell told Steelers Depot via the Terrible Podcast in May that it was very unlikely to happen.
Samuel would carry a lot of the same issues as Aiyuk. The 49ers are in punching distance of finally winning a Super Bowl trophy and trading him would hurt their chances. He is a 2025 candidate, or perhaps even a trade deadline candidate, but probably not now.
Sutton was reportedly entangled in this Aiyuk mess. According to Dianna Russini on X, the 49ers offered a third-round pick for Sutton to try to make the Aiyuk deal with the Steelers work. The Broncos rejected the offer. They also just restructured his contract which would make it more costly for them to move him. Maybe if a serious offer was presented prior to the restructure, but it seems unlikely now.
There are going to be other names floated in the coming days, but it is quite late in the process to make large trades. Most teams will likely want to wait and see how their season goes before starting to entertain offers closer to the deadline.
Gerry Dulac reported that the Steelers were “not surprised” that Aiyuk re-signed with the 49ers. If that is the case, then they hopefully have some backup plans in mind. Otherwise, the Steelers might be left one piece short of a complete puzzle on offense.
