Tim Benz: Make the Brandon Aiyuk decision about Brandon Aiyuk, not Van Jefferson

Here’s a friendly exchange I overheard between a fan and a media member during Tuesday’s Steelers training camp practice.

I didn’t want to jump into someone else’s conversation. But I will in my own column.

Fan: “When are the Steelers going to get Brandon Aiyuk?”

Reporter: “I don’t know. But do you need him? I mean, $30 million for a second receiver in an Arthur Smith offense? Is that necessary? What’s wrong with Van Jefferson?”

Let me answer that last point right away: Nothing. There’s nothing wrong with Van Jefferson.

Ever since signing a one-year contract in March, Jefferson has been everything the Steelers expected him to be.

He’s solid, dependable and consistent. He doesn’t drop much of anything and is a capable blocker. Jefferson is a hard-working, lead-by-example veteran presence with a positive personality in the locker room.

“Van respects the game. He plays it the way it is supposed to be played,” wide receivers coach Zach Azzanni said. “He plays with a hard edge. He finishes. He creates great habits. He is extremely coachable. I can’t say enough good things about where he is as a player.

Exactly. There is nothing wrong with Van Jefferson.

So long as he is not being asked to be the team’s No. 2 wide receiver.

Or the No. 1 receiver should George Pickens ever be sidelined due to injury.

For Jefferson to be deemed a positive addition to the Steelers, all he needs to be is a better version of Allen Robinson II who only had 34 catches for 280 yards and no touchdowns as the third wide receiver in 2023.

Despite having all of the same positive attributes as Jefferson, Robinson was over-leveraged as the Steelers No. 3 guy on the receiver depth chart last year. Jefferson will be, too, if he is asked to be the No. 2 this year.

That’s why the conversation about acquiring Aiyuk shouldn’t be about how good Jefferson is or isn’t. Or how frequently Smith’s offense uses two wide receivers. Or how involved Pat Freiermuth is going to be at tight end.

The conversation should simply be, “Can the Steelers get Aiyuk or not?” Because, if for no other reason, if Pickens should get hurt for any extended stretch this season, the Steelers passing game would be sunk.

In my view, the suggestion that Smith’s offense doesn’t use a second receiver very much is backward thinking. I don’t view the limitations on a second receiver in Smith’s system as a necessary byproduct of the construct.

I view them as shortcomings in the design.I view them as, perhaps, part of the reason Smith was 7-10 all three years he was a head coach in Atlanta.

Yeah, I get it. He didn’t have great quarterback play. Is he definitely going to get that out of a rebooted Russell Wilson or a reinvented Justin Fields?

And, yeah, I get it. Smith deploys multiple tight ends a lot and prefers to run the ball. Therefore, wide receiver targets aren’t spread around as much in his scheme as many other OC’s prefer in 2024.

Well, what if he had the top two receivers in the league when it came to yards per catch in the NFL last season at his disposal? Pickens was at the top of that category at 18.1. Aiyuk was second at 17.9. Wouldn’t that encourage him to do so more often? Would that be a bad thing?

“Whatever happens, happens. But the guys on this team are hungry and ready to go. If something happens, great, but we are confident in who we have on our team right now,” Freiermuth said Tuesday afternoon.

For his part, Jefferson isn’t distracted by the prospect of adding Aiyuk.

“You hear the rumors of things going on. Those are decisions that we don’t make,” Jefferson said after his usual routine of catching 300 balls off the JUGS machine. “That’s an up-top decision. All we can do is control what we can control.”

If the Steelers feel like the 49ers are asking too much in return for Aiyuk, that’s one thing. If Aiyuk’s contract demands are outrageous, then general manager Omar Khan will have to walk away from negotiations.

By all accounts, though, Khan is negotiating. So the Steelers front office must see a need — or at least have a desire — to bolster their wide receiver core with a significant addition.

“I’ll let you guys speculate on that,” Tomlin said Wednesday when I asked him if the team was looking to add to the position.

I plan to take him up on that offer.

Listen: Tim Benz Looks at the Brandon Aiyuk situation during his latest “Breakfast With Benz” podcast.