Here we go again with Brandon Aiyuk
Oh my, here we go again.
The Pittsburgh Steelers made their second splash trade of the offseason involving a wide receiver, this time exporting instead of importing. They traded George Pickens to the Dallas Cowboys after acquiring DK Metcalf from the Seattle Seahawks in March. This came after a 2024 offseason of will they-won’t they in terms of a trade for San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk. The star receiver eventually signed an extension with the 49ers, but tore his ACL seven games into the season.
Now, the 49ers are reportedly open to trading Aiyuk less than a year after giving him a $30 million per year contract. According to Mike Florio, the Steelers are on their radar in terms of potential trade partners.
“The 49ers would love to unload Brandon Aiyuk’s contract on the Steelers,” Florio said on 93.7 The Fan in Pittsburgh.
.@ProFootballTalk on @937theFan “The 49ers would love to unload Brandon Aiyuk’s contract on the Steelers.”
— Andrew Fillipponi (@ThePoniExpress) May 7, 2025
With Aiyuk coming off a torn ACL, the Steelers could likely send a lesser draft pick to the 49ers for the former All-Pro if they were still interested in adding him. And while it may be an unpopular opinion, it would make a lot of sense to acquire Aiyuk.
Considering that the Steelers will all but certainly be drafting a quarterback in the 2026 NFL Draft, they should do all they can to ensure he is set up for success with proven targets. The Bears did that with Caleb Williams, bringing in Keenan Allen and Rome Odunze while already having D.J. Moore. While the Bears didn’t have the season they would have hoped to have, a lot of that falls on Matt Eberflus being a bad head coach. If the Steelers can send a fourth-round pick to San Francisco and make them eat at least a bit of the contract – say $6-8 million per year of the deal – that’s a deal that should at least intrigue Omar Khan and would make the offense instantly better.