It turns out that the Pittsburgh Steelers were literally finalizing a trade with the San Francisco 49ers for wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk before things were halted last second.
According to FOX Sports' Jay Glazer, the Niners had decided they were indeed going to move on from the veteran wide receiver and a trade with the Steelers was about to happen.
However, Glazer reveals that Aiyuk showed up to the facility to talk to head coach Kyle Shanahan, who then proceeded to tell the front office to wait a minute as he spoke to the wide receiver.
But Shanahan couldn't get through to the front office because they were on the phone with the Steelers finalizing the trade, which led to Shanahan running upstairs to get a hold of general manager John Lynch.
Glazer adds that the Niners had pulled their offer to Aiyuk, which ended up being a four-year, $120 million deal. After Shanahan and Aiyuk talked, the deal was back on the table and the two sides finalized things later that day.
Check out Glazer's full report below.
“They were trading him to the Steelers that morning.” @JayGlazer gives us the details of why Brandon Aiyuk stayed in San Francisco pic.twitter.com/3xPpQutcQr
— NFL on FOX Podcast (@NFLonFOXPod) September 10, 2024
What Glazer's report confirms is that Aiyuk was probably never interested in going to the Steelers and was instead using them to try and get more money out of San Francisco.
When the Niners didn't blink and pulled their offer while also making it clear they were intent on trading Aiyuk to the Steelers, the wide receiver came crawling back and took the deal the 49ers originally had on the table.
