While it seems like San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk will eventually be traded to the Pittsburgh Steelers, the deal is not done — as you have probably read from many reporters — and now reports are surfacing that the Steelers' offer to Aiyuk and the Niners may not be as high as it will need to be execute the trade.
According to Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio, the Steelers likely could already have Aiyuk on their roster if they offered a bit more to Aiyuk in his contract extension and the 49ers in the trade to actually acquire Aiyuk.
“He’d possibly already be a member of the Steelers, if they were offering the 49ers more in trade and Aiyuk more in pay,” Florio wrote. “As we hear it, the Steelers are lower than others, on both metrics.”
Florio said the Steelers very well may become “the last team standing” and complete the trade for Aiyuk, although he mentioned a possibility that the 49ers will change course and decide to re-sign Aiyuk themselves. He added Aiyuk's ‘hold-in' has irritated San Francisco head coach Kyle Shanahan.
“There’s one specific report about which I’m confident,” Florio wrote. “As Mike Silver of the San Francisco Chronicle reported on Tuesday, the hold-in is bugging coach Kyle Shanahan. The longer it lasts, the more he wants it to end.”
Shanahan's annoyance may help hurry up a process and saga that has lasted for much of the offseason.
Brandon Aiyuk looking for big deal with 49ers, Steelers, or elsewhere
One thing has remained clear the entire way in regards to Brandon Aiyuk's hold-in: he wants to get paid. The wide receiver is entering his fifth year in the NFL, and after seeing wideouts who were drafted the same year as he was inking new, lucrative contracts, Aiyuk wants in on the action.
Aiyuk is set to make $14.1 million this year after making just $12.5 million over the first four years of his NFL career, during which he accumulated 3,931 receiving yards and 27 total touchdowns. The deal Aiyuk is reportedly looking for is one in which he earns more than $30 million per year, which would make him one of the five highest-paid wide receivers in the league.
Earlier this offseason, Minnesota Vikings superstar Justin Jefferson signed a four-year, $140 million deal, which included a whopping $110 million guaranteed. The next most guaranteed money for a wide receiver is the Philadelphia Eagles' A.J. Brown, who is guaranteed $84 million.
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