Whatever you think about Brandon Aiyuk might be wrong. If you think Aiyuk is chasing big money, that’s precisely not the case. That became crystal clear after he declined a $32 million-a-year offer from the New England Patriots. So, what does he actually want? It’s simple. He wants to join a team that has a Super Bowl caliber.

Well, the Niners are a Super Bowl-caliber team, right? Yes, they are a beast of a team. However, their relationship with Brandon Aiyuk has become so rocky that at this point, it might be better to get rid of him. Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch haven’t changed their stance about Aiyuk’s importance to the team. Make no mistake, he’s super important. But both parties are way past making reparations.

Mike Garafolo has a lot of inside knowledge of the Aiyuk saga. Shanahan and Lynch expressed that they had “no intentions” of trading him to a different team and even offered him $26 million a year initially. They did try to make their relationship more comforting. But that didn’t pan out. So, Garafolo thinks Aiyuk is way beyond the point of burying the hatchet.

Garafolo later added in his appearance on The Rich Eisen Show, “So, they’ve still kept that door open through this while allowing him to talk to other teams so, perhaps that’s part of it too, the little slowdown to say, ‘can we try one more time to see if we can reconcile this here?’ But I think that so much damage has been done I’m not seeing that path right now.”

So, what’s the latest development on BA? What the Steelers are offering the Niners might not be enough to see through the trade. The Niners want another receiver in exchange and Steel City cannot turn over George Pickens blindly. There might be a chance that a third team can get involved in solving the receiver problem in exchange for future picks.

However, this could all have been resolved in the past if only the Niners had traded him pre-draft. Moreover, they should have at least begun the conversation about his contract extension.

A speculation on what Brandon Aiyuk wants

Well, clearly, he wants a sturdy career. The Pats have an amateur-level NFL roster at best and the 49ers receiver doesn’t want to be their savior. In fact, he would have been a royalty acquisition if he went to the Patriots. They are the team with one of the highest cap spaces in the league so they won’t mind using it. But that’s not enough for Aiyuk because he has his own criteria in mind.

That’s the reason he declined the handsome offer from the Patriots. So does that mean he won’t take a big bag blindly or does that mean other teams are not willing to match what the Patriots offer? Apparently, it’s a mix of both.

As Mike Garofolo put it, “He’s already turned down more money to go wherever else he’s going to be. So, frankly, it’s not just about the money for him,” and “I don’t know exactly what the draw is for him in Pittsburgh. I think he’s just got a feeling about that team and a feeling about that situation that he wants to gravitate toward to. So, it’s going to be at a much lower number than 32.”

It’s not a question of how much at this point, it’s a question of when and where. When is a deal getting done and where is Brandon Aiyuk landing? Feel free to chime in with your ideas in the comments below.