Tim Benz: If Brandon Aiyuk really wants to become a Steeler, now is the time to play that card

If San Francisco 49ers receiver Brandon Aiyuk really wants to play for Mike Tomlin and the Pittsburgh Steelers, he’s got the rarest of opportunities to do so.

Right now.

Aiyuk is in the unique position of essentially being a free agent while under contract with his original team.

Normally, the cliche that surrounds trade conversations in sports is: “It takes two to tango.”

In the case of Aiyuk, this tango is a three-way dance.

That’s because if Aiyuk doesn’t want to play for one of the franchises that has put together a trade package deemed acceptable by San Francisco, then the 49ers are stuck with a wide receiver who doesn’t want to play for them and is “holding in,” $14.1 million they can’t spend elsewhere, and potentially losing a valuable asset for no compensation in 2025.

That’s how the Steelers can stay in the derby to land Aiyuk even if (as NBCS Bay Area’s Matt Maiocco has pointed out) the Niners deem Pittsburgh’s trade offer to be insufficient compared to those put forth by the Cleveland Browns and New England Patriots.

If Aiyuk doesn’t like the contract proposals advanced by those teams — or if Aiyuk simply doesn’t want to play with either of those franchises — he can refuse their contract offers. Then there is no incentive for the Browns or Pats to offer that much compensation for a guy who won’t play for the fifth-year option in their city, just like he won’t in San Francisco.

“The Browns and Patriots have given their best offers to Aiyuk’s camp while also presenting trade proposals that the 49ers have accepted. … The 49ers gave permission to Aiyuk to negotiate potential contracts with the Browns, Patriots, Washington Commanders and Pittsburgh Steelers,” a source told Maiocco. “The Commanders have removed themselves from trade talks for Aiyuk, and the Steelers effectively no longer are an option after they declined to meet the 49ers’ trade demands.”

Or are they?

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Because if Aiyuk says “Of the remaining options, I only want to play in Pittsburgh,” then the 49ers may just have to suck it up and take a lesser trade package from Steelers general manager Omar Khan. If not, they’ll just have to keep Aiyuk and deal with a potential holdout and a potential rerun of this situation next year if they have to franchise tag him.

According to Maiocco, what the Pats and Browns are offering (and what the Steelers don’t have) is a capable wide receiver going back to San Francisco with draft picks in return. Presumably, that’s Amari Cooper leaving Cleveland and Kendrick Bourne going out the door from New England.

Unless Van Jefferson, Calvin Austin III, Scotty Miller or Quez Watkins tickles the fancy of 49ers general manager John Lynch, then I’m not sure who that comp from Pittsburgh’s stable of receivers could be.

I can’t imagine the franchise would give up George Pickens. That’d only add cost to the salary cap while still leaving the team with just one viable receiver.

If Aiyuk is as high on the Steelers as he has already publicly stated, and if he wants to follow through on his social media flirtations with Tomlin that he started back in March, then he needs to hold firm now and not cave to the immediate gratification of another team meeting his contract demands if Pittsburgh is really his preferred destination.

Or he can just be the latest in a long line of players to talk about how great it would be to play for Tomlin, only to wind up elsewhere or stay with their current team.

One of the few players who has actually come to Pittsburgh for big money recently is Patrick Queen. The great irony there is that he is one of the few players from another franchise to publicly admonish Tomlin when Queen called the Steelers coach “disrespectful” last year.

In the end, though, guaranteed money spoke to Queen, just as I expect it will speak to Aiyuk, and he’ll either wind up in Cleveland or New England. That’s more of a sure thing than accepting the Steelers’ offer and just hoping Khan and Lynch can work out the rest.

Regardless, what would be the big draw in coming to Pittsburgh over New England and Cleveland anyway for Aiyuk? All three are cold-weather cities with shaky quarterback situations. But at least the Browns finished in front of the Steelers last year in the AFC North and they have Deshaun Watson when healthy.

Granted, it hasn’t worked out great for him up there so far. But even if things do work out for Justin Fields or Russell Wilson here in Pittsburgh, they are both free agents.

And what if Drake Maye pans out in Foxborough?

Not to mention, there is uncertainty about how the chemistry will work out between Pickens and Aiyuk if they are paired together here, and the franchise hasn’t won a playoff game since 2016.

The ball is in your court, Brandon. At least a third of it is, anyway.

Do you really want to come here? Then make it so that the Niners have to take Pittsburgh’s offer instead of New England’s or Cleveland’s. That probably means saying no to their guaranteed money first, with the Steelers deal only being a “Plan B” maybe for Lynch.

So, again, how badly do you really want to play for Mike Tomlin? Or is that something that just sounds good on a podcast or looks good on social media?

You’ve got every opportunity to back up your own stance right now. I’m hoping you do.

Otherwise, see you twice a year with the Browns, I guess.