San Francisco 49ers star wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk has been asking to be moved from the team for months since they will not sign him to a long-term contract.
Earlier in the week, reports dropped that the 49ers were in trade talks with the Cleveland Browns and New England Patriots for Aiyuk. The star wide receiver was going to choose the destination whose contract he liked the best. Still, he didn’t want to go to New England due to the team’s bad quarterback situation, so that would leave only the Cleveland Browns, who made the playoffs in 2023, without their starting quarterback, Deshaun Watson.
Even without how great the Browns have been the last few years, Aiyuk seems not to want any part of them and wants to go to their rival, the Pittsburgh Steelers, instead.
Brandon Aiyuk Doesn’t Want Cleveland
Pittsburgh was believed to be the leader in landing Aiyuk for the last few weeks but fell out of the running on Tuesday since they couldn’t meet the 49ers’ asking price. Now, they somehow got themselves back in it and still can’t meet the San Francisco 49ers’ demands. That is why Aiyuk hasn’t picked his new team yet. He wants to be a Steeler, and until they meet what the 49ers want, he is going to remain in San Francisco.
If Aiyuk wanted to be a Cleveland Brown, he would’ve chosen their team three days ago since the Browns had an offer on the table the 49ers liked. But since he wants no part of Cleveland, he is not there. It’s not the 49ers saying no; it’s Aiyuk rejecting them.
This is the first time you can argue that a player should choose the Browns over the Steelers, and It doesn’t seem like Aiyuk gets it. Pittsburgh has two quarterbacks, Russell Wilson and Justin Fields, who can’t exactly play, and an offense that has shown no signs of improvement.
Cleveland has one of the best offensive-minded head coaches in the NFL, Kevin Stefanski, and any star wide receiver would be very happy to play under him.
