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Joe Starkey: Steelers must make 49ers an offer they can't refuse for Brandon Aiyuk

Joe Starkey, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on

Published in Football

PITTSBURGH — I'm probably going to be a fan of this Steelers offseason no matter what.

They blew up their road-to-nowhere quarterback situation and tried something radically different. That doesn't mean it'll work, but you have to respect the effort. They had what appears to be a second consecutive stellar draft. They executed a classic addition-by-subtraction maneuver by sending Diontae Johnson south (I'm told his flight to North Carolina went backward the whole way), and maybe most of all, they brought in Patrick Queen.

How about this guy?

Can you become a Steelers legend before you play a game?

Queen's trying. The Ravens can't stop talking about him. Queen doesn't need to talk back, not when he delivers the kind of cinematic brilliance he displayed Wednesday.

Ravens cornerback Marlon Humphrey was the latest ex-teammate to pipe up on a podcast, saying Queen might soon discover he never should have left Baltimore. The story appeared on steelersdepot.com under the headline: "'Reality Sets In:' Ravens' Marlon Humphrey Tells Patrick Queen Pittsburgh's Grass Might Not Be Greener."

 

Queen responded with a silent movie Charlie Chaplin would be proud of: 19 seconds of Queen sipping what appears to be beer from a wine glass as he waters his lawn.

I wasn't as big a fan of the Cameron Sutton move, for a variety of reasons, though he came cheap and could thrive as a slot corner after being miscast as something more than that in Detroit.

Now, it's time for the hammer: Assuming he hasn't done this already, general manager Omar Khan must make his San Francisco 49ers counterpart, John Lynch, an offer he can't refuse for wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk, a 26-year-old star who had 1,342 yards receiving, seven touchdowns and the second-highest yards-per-catch average in the NFL (17.9) last season. The Steelers could probably survive without a star to pair with George Pickens — who led the NFL at 18.1 yards per catch — but surviving is about all they've done for the past seven years under Mike Tomlin.

I'd rather thrive. The Steelers still need something to separate themselves in what promises to be brutal divisional and conference races. They aren't paying anyone big money on offense. They will have more than enough cap space to pay Aiyuk.

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