Steelers News: Omar Khan’s Biggest Failure During The Brandon Aiyuk Saga + Top Steelers WR Targets

[Music] the Brandon auk Saga is officially over so today let's put a bow on this entire thing here and let's go back and kind of break down everything that happened and what is going to come forward here for the Pittsburgh Steelers what happens next for the Pittsburgh Steelers now that iuk is officially locked up longterm in San Francisco first up we'll talk about how the iuk deal went down how close the Steelers got to actually Landing the all proo wide receiver then we'll look back at you know a trade that was definitely controversial at the time and definitely looking back in hindsight probably was a big mistake by Omar Khan the Deontay Johnson trade uh then I'll also go into what happens now for the Pittsburgh Steelers are they going to go get another receiver are they going to stick with what they have now I'll talk about that and then we'll finish up the show with some potential wide receiver targets that the Steelers could still get right now if they want to make a move before the start of the 2024 season but before we get into everything today guys uh go down there in the comments section and get us started grade the 2024 Steelers offseason everything from signing Russell Wilson to free agency to the draft to not Landing auk grade the overall 2024 offseason for the black and gold give me an a a b a c a d or an F for me personally I'm going to give it about a b let me know what you guys are thinking down there in the comments section so let's start here with uh Brandon iuk here and I know you guys are tired of the auk stuff but I just kind of want to put a bow on things here and kind of break down how this entire Saga came to a close yesterday so from the beginning here it was always Brandon auk and the 49ers his first option to come to an agreement on a long-term extension now obviously it got drugg out auk wanted a lot of money San Francisco didn't quite want to give him that kind of money at least at the beginning and you know they both wanted to get a deal done auk wants a play for a team that's clearly competing for Super Bowls and the team that's competing for that Super Bowl San Francisco 49ers clearly wanted to bring him back because he is their number one receiver so essentially the the the trade offer that Omar Khan gave to the 49ers looked like this a second round pick and a third round pick in 2025 in exchange for Brandon auk and this was a take it or leave it style of offer from Omar Khan he made this offer a couple of weeks ago and he said this is what we're offering we're not going to give you George Pickins we're not going to give you Alex heith we're not going to give you any players you guys can either take a second and a third round pick for auk or you guys can do something else so that's pretty much what Omar Khan did and San Francisco was kind of willing to do that if they were able to land a wide receiver which was the missing piece in this deal the only receiver or or the only receiving weapons I should say that San Francisco wanted from Pittsburgh were George Pickins and Pat fouth the Steelers were not willing to deal any of those guys to the 49ers so the missing piece then was the San Francisco 49ers had to go out and try to come up with a deal uh with another team to find a wide receiver to replace auk because think about it this way man San Francisco is a team that really feels like they can win a Super Bowl this year they they feel like it was an absolute no nothing burger here they absolutely could not deal Brandon auk away from the team without getting a serviceable starting receiver to replace him so San Francisco went searching for that kind of wide receiver but because the draft had already gone by and you know post June first cuts and all that stuff already went by it was very hard to find a wide receiver uh to their liking at that point they did make an offer to the Denver Broncos according to d Diana Rini for a third round pick in 2025 so essentially the 49ers would be getting courland Sutton and a second round pick from the Steelers and then the Broncos would be getting Pittsburgh's 2025 third round pick however Denver stuck to their guns and they rejected that offer opting to keep courtand Sutton after trading Jerry Judy to the Cleveland Browns earlier this off season and you know Pittsburgh uh as I said earlier this week they did feel good that San Francisco would eventually find a trade partner and eventually find a wide receiver to their liking uh but unfortunately that wasn't the case San Francisco couldn't find that wide receiver and eventually they just said you know what man we're not going to find a wide receiver that we like on the trade market so we're just going to bite the bullet and we're going to pay Brandon iuk what he wants and that's exactly what ended up happening San Francisco caved and they gave him the $30 million per season that he was looking for uh and now Brandon auk will be staying in the bay on a 4-year $120 million contract extension with 76 million of that being guaranteed a lot of it is UPF front as well so that's going to help out with the with the Brock py situation that they have coming up in the future um so overall 49ers are happy Brandon auk is happy and both parties get what they wanted from the beginning but from the Pittsburgh Steelers perspective here it really does suck that you got that close right if the Denver Broncos accept that tradeoff or a third round pick for courland Sutton which by the way is a pretty fair offer if you ask me uh we'd be talking about Brandon auk being a Pittsburgh Steeler right now so the fact that the Steelers were that close definitely sucks but at the end of the day here as I'll discuss later in today's show I think the Steelers feel pretty comfortable with where they're at now sound off for me down there in the comments section what was your one word reaction yesterday when you saw the news break that Brandon auk was extended by the San Francisco 49ers let me know down there in the comments section for today's pin comment YouTube's going to throw an ad break here in just a couple of seconds and when that happens take advantage of that time by answering today's pin question with your onew reaction now shifting over to what I think was the biggest blunder not only of this offseason from Steelers GMO mark con but in Omar's entire career as the Steelers GM and that was the Deonte Johnson trade pretty much trading him to the Carolina Panthers for pretty much nothing and a hard truth that Steelers fans are going to have to swallow here is that you know if deont was on this roster and they didn't trade him for practically nothing IU could probably be a Pittsburgh Steeler right now so here is what the Deontay trade uh looked like here so you got Dante Jackson and a 2025 sixth round pick which ended up being Logan Lee and then the Panthers got uh Deontay and a seventh round pick um from the Steelers so pretty much you traded Deontay Johnson uh you know arguably your number one most productive receiver from years past for pretty much nothing because Dante Jackson it was well reported was likely going to be cut by the Carolina Panthers because of cap reasons he had been injured he had had inconsistent performance on the field now I I'm not against the Steelers bringing in Dante I think he actually had a really good training camp in preseason and I think he's going to be a really good number two corner for the Steelers this year but you could have had him for a much lower price on the free agency market if you would have just waited and then you could have traded Deontay Johnson to the 49ers as that wide receiver in this Brandon IU trade I mean this is what it could looked like here if they would have just hung on to Deontay Johnson you could have traded Deontay and a second round pick in 2025 to the 49ers that's what they wanted they wanted a second rounder and a wide receiver to replace auk if you would have had Johnson you would have had that missing piece and then the Steelers would have gotten Brandon auk and you still could have gotten Dante Jackson in free agency so I know that hindsight is 2020 but that is definitely a big blunder uh in hindsight for Omar Khan that is that he 100% botched that situation giving up Deontay Johnson a very valuable trade piece in my opinion for somebody in Dante Jackson where you pretty much could have had him for free on the free agency market didn't have to give up trade C draft Capital didn't have to give up Deontay and of course if you have Deontay as a trade piece I think that auk would have been on the Pittsburgh Steelers roster probably back towards the draft I think it would have gotten done if that were the case but unfortunately Omar dealt uh Deon for pretty much peanuts and that definitely came back uh to backfire on the Pittsburgh Steelers this off season and in my opinion that is the biggest blunder of Omar Khan's career as the GM of this team to this point in his career still love them but you have to look at it objectively here it was definitely a bad situation so the big question moving forward for the Pittsburgh Steelers now that Brandon iuk is officially locked up longterm in the bay what happens now I'm going to answer that question here in just a second but first let's have a word from our sponsor at bet us bet us is back as a sponsor here on Steelers talk and you can take advantage of their 125% deposit bonus when you go to chatsports.com SLB and use promo code Steelers 125 and what that deposit bonus means guys is if you put in any amount of money so let's say you put in $100 $ 125% of that money $125 is given back to you to use on your bets and why not use that $25 to get you started on week one Pittsburgh Steelers versus the Atlanta Falcons right now the total over under is at 41 points personally I'd probably be taking the over on that personally and then the Falcons are currently favored at minus three so you guys can get your bets in today for week one for the Pittsburgh Steelers and take advantage of this awesome deal 125% deposit bonus with our friends at bet us when you use code when you use uh promo code Steelers 1225 at chatsports.com SLB now the answer to that question is likely nothing in terms of what the Steelers are going to do I think the Steelers I said it yesterday on yesterday's show on the breaking news show guys I think the Steelers feel very comfortable with what they have in the wide room now you can disagree with them and you can say van Jefferson stinks and Calvin Austin I third stink and Roman Wilson stinks uh and you know you can certainly make that argument at this point there's definitely a lot of question marks in this wide receiver room at this point but they did get Brandon Johnson to be on their practice squad he does have some nice chemistry with Russell Wilson George Pickins is a legit number one receiver in my opinion and they do like van Jefferson Calvin Austin I third and Roman Wilson because those are guys that can get open down the field all right all of them are very fast all of them are very good route Runners down the field and this is a Steelers offense that's less about kind of being Elite route runners in the short and intermediate part of the field it's more about getting open down the field so Russell Wilson can use his his excellent deep ball uh to make Big Splash plays in the passing game off of play action and I think it's important to remember here Steelers fans given the Run heavy nature of Arthur Smith's offense the success of this offense this year was always going to largely depend on the Run game not the wide receivers if this run game was bad this year it doesn't matter if you have Brandon iuk or not this offense is not going to work without having one of the best running back Duos in Naji Harris and Jaylen Warren and the offensive line doing their thing because you look at Arthur Smith in his pass look at what the 2020 Tennessee Titans wide receiver room looked like you had AJ Brown who is a legit star that could be the George pickings role then you had Corey Davis and if you're telling me that van Jefferson somebody that's over 200 lb somebody that runs a 439 somebody that's a legit deep threat can't play the Cory Davis role in this offense I think you're pretty much crazy and I actually like the depth of the Steelers depth chart more than the Tennessee Titans in 2020 and you have to remember this is a team in the Tennessee Titans in 2020 that was a number one seed in the AFC and look at the kind of numbers that Ryan tanah Hill was able to get with these wide receivers in this offense 33 touchdowns to seven interceptions tanah Hill is has never even gotten close to these kinds of numbers outside of the Arthur Smith offense and you take a look at the offensive stats from That season they were still one of the most effective offenses in the National Football League that year because they had a dominant Run game right you had King Henry you had Derk Henry leading the way there now the big question for the Pittsburgh Steelers is going to be can they replicate that kind of production they're hoping that uh Naji Harris can kind of be the bruising running back that Derrick Henry was and then they're hoping Jaylen Warren can be the kind of electricity factor that of course Derrick Henry brought to the table the Steelers are hoping that their running back Duo can kind of replicate what Arthur Smith was able to do in Tennessee and that has always been the big question for the Pittsburgh Steelers heading into this year will this run game be able to dominate if they can I think this wide receiver room is more than good enough to have success on offense this year if it's not good enough it wouldn't have mattered if you would have gotten Brandon auk because the foundation of this offense is the Run game and that is still the case heading into week one as we stand here today so let me know down there in the comments section is the Steelers Run game good enough right now to drive the offense to success this year give me a yes or give me a no let me know your guys's thoughts down there in the comments section I certainly hope that they that this offense is good enough um in this run game is good enough to drive the offense uh but I guess only time will tell at this point also I would say now that the yayuk deal is done look out for a potential Pat Fruth extension the team uh and mths representation have been in contact this entire training camp and entire offseason trying to work something out and now that you're not paying Brandon iuk you do have some money uh to be able to spend on a FR moth extension um now I know that he's been a little bit hurt and he hasn't been the most productive in the world but I think that you know in this offense he's a really good fit and he's going to be a very valuable piece to the Steelers this year here are the highest paid tight ends in the National Football League so I would expect his extension to be somewhere in the $14 million range per year I don't think he's going to make top dollar because I don't think the production that he's had necessarily warrants that but I think a nice extension would be good here for Fri Mo if you can get him at the right price now make sure you guys click that thumbs up icon if you haven't already if you love Mo just like I do man Penn State Legend now Pittsburgh stealer and he's just been you he's been very reliable and very solid when he's been on the field for the Pittsburgh Steelers hopefully uh he can have a breakout season this year now before I go go here I did promise you guys some wide receiver targets now like I said it's definitely possible that the Steelers just stay put with the wide receivers that they have right now because I think that the skill sets of the guys in the building van Jefferson Calvin a third Roman Wilson fit what they want but the best available wide receivers uh either on a practice squad right now or uh in free agency Tim Patrick Isaiah hodgin and Michael Thomas I think are probably the best available you could also bring back miles boyin especially if you need special teams help Mitchell Tinsley is an interesting name on the commanders practice squad Sterling Shepard uh always hurt but an intriguing route Runner Russell Gage is somebody that's played a lot uh in the Arthur Smith offense he's one of Arthur Smith's guys so watch out for Russell Gage Colin Johnson had a really good game uh in the Hall of Fame game I thought he had some really nice catches uh tested catches getting open route running looked good from him you can poach him from Chicago's practice squad and then Donovan peoples Jones and Al Robinson are also available on practice squads and I'll also throw in Hunter Renfro as well former Las Vegas Raiders player that's currently a free agent I'm not really sure if I want to go get any of those guys and honestly if I'm going to get one of these players it's probably going to be Tim Patrick Isaiah Hodgins or Michael Thomas now the only thing about those guys is that they're very similar type of receivers they're bigger guys uh but they don't really get down the field they're not fast they don't have good long speed they don't create separation deep down the field and I think that's kind of what Arthur Smith wants out of his wide receiver room this year and they kind of feel like Pat fouth is that possession type receiver they kind of feel like George Pickins can be a a a type of uh security blanket for Russell Wilson they want van Jefferson Calvin atin third and Roman Wilson their guys' jobs is to get things going deep down the field okay so that's what I think is going to happen uh and I think they're probably going to stick with what they have before the season begins now the more likely option for the Pittsburgh Steelers in my opinion is that they're they're probably going to go out and try to get something uh during uh the trade deadline okay like they're going to go into the season with this group right here and if van Jefferson isn't good if Calvin Austin I thir doesn't break out if Roman Wilson takes a while to get his feet wet in the National Football League I think that the that the goal is going to be to buy a wide receiver at at the trade deadline as opposed to getting a Tim Patrick a Michael Thomas or an Isaiah Hodgins uh off the practice squad before the season begins and you know there's definitely going to be some intriguing names that could be coming up during the trade deadline I've seen Devonte Adams be thrown around quite a bit if he Demands a trade out of Las Vegas which is more than possible at this point definitely keep your eye on Devonte but DeAndre Hopkins is a guy that I would keep my eye on as well same thing with Chris Godwin they're both on expiring contracts darus Slayton is another guy uh that could potentially be dealt if the Giants are selling at the deadline which I think they will be Keenan Allen he is on one-year contract and the Bears have two really nice receivers uh in DJ Moore and romad dun so they might be looking to sell if Chicago is losing games John mey and Robert Woods are two guys uh that you could maybe get at a lower price at the deadline so let me know down there in the comments section who would you guys trade for out of that group at the trade deadline then also let me know your confidence level in the Steelers wide receiver room right now put it on a scale of 0 to 10 for me personally I'm at about a six 6.5 maybe uh like I've said before this offense and the success of this offense is going to run through how well the Run game goes um but at the end of the day here guys I think that the wide receiver room the Steelers feel pretty comfortable with right now so make sure you guys type those real ones in the comments section if you haven't already if you made it to the end of today's show I know it's a little bit of a longer one but I wanted to kind of put a on the Brandon iuk Saga here and just so we can move on kind of recap everything and now we can move forward as a fan base and as a football team here heading towards week one against the Atlanta Falcons make sure you guys click that subscribe button for extensive Steelers coverage every single day here on YouTube for free we have breaking news coverage just like we had yesterday when the iuk news broke we have weekly live shows plus a weekly live watch party for every single Steelers game and we got over 550 57 th000 yers already subscribed to the channel so if you love uh this kind of Steelers content you want more of it every single day make sure you click that subscribe button right now [Music]