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The 49ers Could Send Brandon Aiyuk to the Steelers in a 3-Team Trade

The 49ers most likely are targeting a deep threat who already knows Kyle Shanahan's offensive system so he can play right away.

Grant Cohn

Feb 11, 2024; Paradise, Nevada, USA; San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk (11) against the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LVIII at Allegiant Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports
Feb 11, 2024; Paradise, Nevada, USA; San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk (11) against the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LVIII at Allegiant Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports / Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports
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The 49ers still haven't figured out what they want to do with Brandon Aiyuk.

They say they want to extend his contract, but they haven't done so yet. And they continue to have trade talks with other teams according to The Athletic's Dianna Russini.

"There are thoughts that this could be a three-team trade," said Russini on her podcast. "Because the San Francisco 49ers are open to trading Brandon Aiyuk. But in order to trade Aiyuk, they would like to get a premier player back, a receiver specifically. Pittsburgh is not giving that up. So where are they going to get one? Maybe there's a world where the 49ers can trade Aiyuk to the Steelers, get some draft picks back and then go use some of those picks to trade with another team to get the receiver that they're looking for.

"There are a lot of different reasons for the holdup. Let's start with the player. From what I was told, the player hasn't really been easy to work with in terms of what he wants. He seems to be a little all over the place. Then you have the 49ers. If they were going to deal Aiyuk, why would they not do this around the draft? Why would they not do this earlier? Now they're a few weeks away from the season, they're so injured that they're canceling joint practices with the Saints because they don't have enough guys. It has been a really, really tough summer for the 49ers."

The 49ers most likely are targeting a deep threat who already knows Kyle Shanahan's offensive system so he can play right away. I'm guessing not many wide receivers who fit that description are currently available, hence the hold-up.

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Grant Cohn

GRANT COHN

Grant Cohn has covered the San Francisco 49ers daily since 2011. He spent the first nine years of his career with the Santa Rosa Press Democrat where he wrote the Inside the 49ers blog and covered famous coaches and athletes such as Jim Harbaugh, Colin Kaepernick and Patrick Willis. In 2012, Inside the 49ers won Sports Blog of the Year from the Peninsula Press Club. In 2020, Cohn joined FanNation and began writing All49ers. In addition, he created a YouTube channel which has become the go-to place on YouTube to consume 49ers content. Cohn's channel typically generates roughly 3.5 million viewers per month, while the 49ers' official YouTube channel generates roughly 1.5 million viewers per month. Cohn live streams almost every day and posts videos hourly during the football season. Cohn is committed to asking the questions that 49ers fans want answered, and providing the most honest and interactive coverage in the country. His loyalty is to the reader and the viewer, not the team or any player or coach. Cohn is a new-age multimedia journalist with an old-school mentality, because his father is Lowell Cohn, the legendary sports columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1979 to 1993. The two have a live podcast every Tuesday. Grant Cohn grew up in Oakland and studied English Literature at UCLA from 2006 to 2010. He currently lives in Oakland with his wife.

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