Were the Texans one of five suitors for 49ers star WR Brandon Aiyuk?

As of Monday morning, the Houston Texans are in their third practice of the 2024 training camp. If you get your camp information from articles like this one, podcasts like mine, or radio shows on SportsRadio 610, you can probably tell: It’s a pretty harmonious, drama-free zone. The culture established by DeMeco Ryans is a big reason for that, but it helps that the Texans don’t have any players looking for new contracts right now.

Nico Collins signed his three-year extension a few weeks ago, and it was really the only thing that could be done contractually for general manager Nick Caserio. However, there are several teams around the league that are about to deal with holdouts and/or disgruntled players reporting to camp. Several quarterbacks (Dak Prescott, Jordan Love, Tua Tagovailoa) are looking for new contracts, as are several receivers.

One of those receivers looking for a new deal is 49ers All-Pro Brandon Aiyuk, who finally requested a trade last week. Aiyuk is in the final season of his rookie deal, which is set to make around $14 million, and plays a position where the new annual cap hit is $35 million per year, set by Minnesota’s Justin Jefferson a few weeks ago.

Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio shed some interesting light on Aiyuk’s situation over the weekend, when he reported that before the draft, five teams were willing to pay Aiyuk if they could have made a trade with the Niners:

At the time, the magic number was around $28 million per year. That has likely changed, given the Vikings’ landmark deal with receiver Justin Jefferson.

Regardless, five teams, we’re told, were willing to pay Aiyuk whatever he wanted before the draft. If they could have also reached acceptable trade terms with the 49ers, he would have been traded.

That game didn’t happen. It’s unclear what the 49ers wanted at the time. They rejected an offer of a second-round pick from the Patriots. Other interested teams were, and may still be, the Steelers and Commanders.

Florio then identifies three of the five teams that were pursuing Aiyuk and were willing to pay him $28 million per year, likely for at least four seasons: the Patriots, Steelers and Commanders. Aiyuk himself has cryptically confirmed that the Steelers and Commanders might be interested in his services on various media outlets.

So, what were the other two teams that took a chance on Aiyuk, and could one of them be the Texans? It’s a fun question to ponder. Here are a few reasons why the Texans seem like a good early-year contender in the Aiyuk market:

DeMeco Ryans knows Aiyuk very well
Aiyuk was a first-round draft pick by the 49ers in 2020, so Ryans spent three seasons in the same building as him in San Francisco. The Texans are a team that values ​​how a player is behind the scenes and as a teammate, perhaps more than most NFL teams. Ryans’ information about Aiyuk would have been crucial to the Texans getting such a deal done. Aiyuk seems to have a dramatic side, as he has been very vocal about his contact situation to the media, so ultimately, Ryans’ information could have resulted in an outright refusal of Aiyuk’s services.

The Texans had the salary space to make it happen.
The Texans entered the offseason with more cap space than two-thirds of the NFL teams. Ultimately, they had the cap space to be very active with high-profile free agents and extend WR Nico Collins’ contract, so they could have undoubtedly worked out a multi-year deal for Aiyuk’s job. It would have been unusual for Nick Caserio to pay top dollar for more than three years to someone who wasn’t already a Texan, but they had the financial means to do so, if everything else lined up.

They were clearly looking for more help at receiver (see: Diggs, Stefon)
On March 15, the Texans reached a deal with the Vikings, in which they received an additional second-round pick (in 2025), allowing the Vikings to trade the 2024 picks with them, with the Vikings moving up to No. 23 overall and the Texans moving up to No. 42 overall. Ultimately, that 2025 second-round pick is what the Texans sent to Buffalo for Diggs, but that Diggs trade didn’t happen until April 3, so the Texans could have very well acquired that pick with multiple later trade targets in mind. Aiyuk would have made sense, but it likely would have taken more than that to get a deal done, with Aiyuk being five years younger than Diggs.

So, if you had to guess, who were Aiyuk’s other two suitors?
I’ve thought about this a lot, and if I had to bet money on it, my two mystery suitors would be Carolina and Jacksonville. The Panthers were scouring the league for help for second-year QB Bryce Young, and Aiyuk would have been an enticing trade for a team whose fans are as apathetic as any team in the league right now. Jacksonville lost Calvin Ridley in free agency to the Titans, so Aiyuk would have been a smart option for them. In fact, the Jaguars are still second on the odds board to acquire Aiyuk, should the Niners meet his trade demands.

Ultimately, based on everything I’ve heard and everything I’ve seen with my own eyes in camp, the Texans ended up getting the right guy. Stefon Diggs, in a showcase year, makes a lot more sense than paying top dollar for someone from outside the organization.

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