It’s Time For Steelers To Let Go Of The Brandon Aiyuk Idea
Credit: Corey Perrine/Florida Times-Union
The NFL is an ever-evolving league. The importance of various positions rise and fall with a steady stream of rules changes and trends that dictate the flow of the game. That’s a tricky thing to navigate for front offices because positional importance dictates the salary cap and resource allocation. What worked in the 90s didn’t necessarily work in the 2000s and what worked in the early 2000s doesn’t necessarily work today.
Because of all this, it’s time for the Steelers to move on from the idea of a Brandon Aiyuk trade. After a tumultuous off-season filled with rumors, the talented San Francisco 49ers receiver officially demanded a trade last week.
Brandon Aiyuk requested a trade.
You know who’s on the other side of the phone.
Omar Khan.
Steelers splash trade incoming. 🔥
— PickensBurgh🫡 (Tino) (@PickensBurgh) July 16, 2024
Fan bases of wide receiver-starved teams around the league salivated at the idea of adding the speedy bowling ball to their roster. With a wildly uncertain stable of wideouts behind George Pickens, and coming off a few years of horrific offense, Steeler Nation has been screaming about the possibility for months.
But it may be time to have a realistic conversation about the current state of the wide receiver in the NFL, and how it can affect your team’s cap.
There was a point in time when rookie wide receiver success was almost unthinkable in the NFL. When Randy Moss burst onto the scene in 1998 it wasn’t just that he was a super freak. It was that he was making such an impact out of the gate. When Anquan Boldin snagged over 100 receptions as a rookie a few years later, it bewildered NFL fans. Simply put, being a rookie receiver used to be incredibly difficult. This was in some ways due to the league enforcing rules that limit physicality against wide receivers, but it was also very much about the difference in style and game concepts between then and now.
College concepts have flooded the NFL’s passing strategies, and that has made it far easier for young athletic receivers to make a difference straight out of the draft. Young coaches have built systems that allow them to elevate speedy talent immediately.
It took us a minute to realize that is what was happening. For a moment it seemed as if we were living in a receiver boom. Every year, the narrative coming out of the draft was “can you believe this wide receiver class?!?!?!?!” Justin Jefferson was a superstar out of the gate. Ja’Marr Chase followed him with his own crazy rookie year. Now look at what Pula Nacua has done.
And this doesn’t even mention the long list of difference-making wide receivers that have come in the draft over the last three seasons. While experts have acted like we’re living in a golden age for NFL wide receiver talent, the reality is it’s just way easier to make an impact out wide than it used to be.
At the same time, the value of the receiver has skyrocketed. Long gone are the days of high-priced NFL running backs dictating the league’s offenses. We now live in the era of Netflix’s “Receiver,” where everyone wants their superstar wideout. This is despite the extreme rarity with which the team with the best and highest-paid receivers in the league wins the Super Bowl.
Still, most front offices are focused on spending as little as they possibly can on the running back position and shifting all that money to the wide receiver market. Jefferson just signed a universe-altering deal and Chase will get one that follows suit very soon. This is the new normal.
Aiyuk is rumored to want upwards of $30 million a year. There might be a situation where that would be a good decision for the Pittsburgh Steelers, but this isn’t it. Pittsburgh is not on the cusp of a title, with an old roster at the end of a championship window. They are a team in transition with a mixture of young talent and veteran leadership. Perhaps they will surprise a bunch of people and make a run at the playoffs this year, but there’s no reason to think they are a wide receiver away from the Super Bowl.
Omar Khan needs to focus on this roster and truly understand what they have at the quarterback position, then dive head-first into the 2025 Draft, where they can find affordable wide receiver options. It’s not smart for a team that is a year or two away from seriously competing to sacrifice legitimate draft capital to take on a high-end No. 2 receiver.
There are people who believe Aiyuk to be better than that, and perhaps he is. However, it isn’t a certainty. There may be no easier place to play wide receiver than in a Niners system where Christian McCaffrey commands the most respect of any running back in the league.
Brandon Aiyuk wants to be paid like a No. 1 receiver. One point of hesitation is, can he run by coverage when it's tight in iso situations? The best receivers can cut and move through their breaks without a discernible decline in speed. With Aiyuk, that's a mixed bag. pic.twitter.com/EjMDt5zrYk
— Doug Farrar ✍ (@NFL_DougFarrar) July 17, 2024
The risk-reward just simply isn’t there for Pittsburgh.
Fans love points, explosive offenses, and talented receivers, but it is clear where the Steelers stand in their championship-building journey. And if they’re being honest about that, it becomes very obvious how little they need to spend a premium on a wide receiver, despite last week’s news. It’s time for Pittsburgh to completely let go of the Brandon Aiyuk idea.
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