The Brandon Aiyuk saga may be winding down.
NFL Media’s Ian Rapoport provided an update Tuesday morning that appears to indicate the decision on whether Aiyuk’s tenure with the San Francisco 49ers continues is in the wide receiver’s hands.
According to Rapoport, the 49ers and Steelers have a deal in place that would send Aiyuk to Pittsburgh. The Steelers are also prepared to offer Aiyuk a contract he’d be willing to sign.
Meanwhile, San Francisco has a contract offer on the table for Aiyuk that is presumably different from the one that led to his trade request in the first place.
It’s now up to Aiyuk whether he’ll sign the deal with the 49ers, or force a trade to Pittsburgh.
There’s no clarity on what the trade would net San Francisco. Reporting from NBC Sports Bay Area’s Matt Maiocco indicated the Steelers wouldn’t do a deal that included second and third-round picks in next year’s draft.
That means the Steelers either moved on what they’d be willing to offer in a trade, or the 49ers brought down their asking price. If it’s the latter, this will go down as an unmitigated disaster for San Francisco’s front office.
The 49ers had opportunities to negotiate with Aiyuk as the WR market started moving, and instead they chose to leave an offer on the table he wouldn’t sign. Now they’re on the brink of trading an All-Pro for what’s likely to be below market value because they were limited in the number of teams they could trade with because of Aiyuk’s contract situation.
Of course, he could wind up choosing to stay in San Francisco and all of this drama will be water under the bridge once he returns to practice. However, there will continue to be questions in the future about how the 49ers do business because they simply can’t put themselves in a spot where they deal with this again next time a long-term contract comes up.
