Are there any clear updates on the Brandon Aiyuk saga? No, of course not. But I’m writing, you’re reading, so let’s speculate a little bit more. After taking a 24-hour break from talking Brandon Aiyuk, NFL Network’s The Insiders discussed him during Wednesday’s show. Mike Garafolo reported there’s essentially been zero news over the past few days as August is approaching its end, and the regular season is on the horizon. That led Tom Pelissero to think the longer the Steelers have to wait on a trade, the less they’ll have to give.
“The closer we get to the start of the regular season and knowing that Brandon Aiyuk has not been practicing this entire time, there does come a point in which the value of the trade on which they have agreed to, at least a framework as Ian reported a week or so ago, that would potentially change,” Pelissero told the panel. “In other words, if the player’s not ready to play or not have a full-time role in the early portion of the season, that impacts the compensation.”
Pelissero’s comment was met with head shakes from Ian Rapoport and Garafolo. And their reactions feel more agreeable. While deadlines and desperation might give Pittsburgh leverage, not having Aiyuk 100 percent ready for the start of the season isn’t going to change the terms of the deal. Terms that, as Garafolo repeated Wednesday, are still essentially agreed to. It’s doubtful Pittsburgh would try to make a last-second alteration and try to only trade, say, a fourth-round pick instead of a third-rounder.
But there is validity to how ready Aiyuk will be for the start of the season. While he’s trained and worked on the side, occasionally doing sprints at 49ers’ practice and working out with personal coach T.J. Houshmanzadeh, Aiyuk probably isn’t in football shape. He hasn’t played a game since the Super Bowl and could use a handful of practices to get his legs under him again.
If Aiyuk is traded and it doesn’t occur for another week or longer, there will be questions over his Week 1 readiness. Just as there was with 49ers’ DE Nick Bosa against the Steelers last year, not signing an extension until days before the regular season opener. He wound up only playing 56 percent of the snaps, though the 49ers’ blowout victory made it easy to rest him late.
When the Steelers traded for FS Minkah Fitzpatrick mid-season in 2019, he played 100 percent of the snaps in his debut against, funny enough, the 49ers. Granted, football shape wasn’t a concern but being dealt to a new team with only days to digest the playbook didn’t curtail his snap count.
Still, that’s a small obstacle to securing someone of Brandon Aiyuk’s talents for the next 4 or 5 years. If this was a one-year rental deal, perhaps Pittsburgh could get away with giving less. But if they finally had the opportunity to land Aiyuk, if that door fully swung open, Omar Khan would be foolish to get greedy and pick him up for less.
As Garafolo noted, the Steelers are simply waiting it out mainly because they have no other choice.
“The Steelers trade still remains in play…So that deal is done,” he said of the framework of a 49ers-Steelers trade. “The trade and the contract feel like they’re done and could be done just like that. We’re waiting for this thing to resolve one way or another.”
And so we wait—for something—anything—to end the saga, provide an answer, and get the players, teams, and fans moving forward into the 2024 season.
