Steelers' top trade target at WR has officially requested a trade from the San Francisco 49ers

After months of speculation and back and forth, the San Francisco 49ers and Brandon Aiyuk have reached a new level in their contractual impasse.

Per Mike Garafolo of NFL Media, Aiyuk has officially requested a trade from the 49ers.

Steelers are on the clock

Now, before Steelers fans get too excited, this is par for the course when it comes to the 49ers. Things got very ugly between the front office and Deebo Samuel before he signed his extension, and Nick Bosa had a lengthy negotiation process last year.

But for Aiyuk the situation is different. He has repeatedly felt discounted by the 49ers offers, and that has only continued with the state of the WR market.

For Pittsburgh, the trade request is just another reason to pick up the phone and check in on what it will take to make a deal happen this time around after failing to do so over draft weekend.

Aiyuk has ties to the Steelers thanks to his funny quip with HC Mike Tomlin on social media, and he also went viral for claiming that the 49ers didn't want him .

Funny enough, the timing of the trade request aligns with what Ray Fittipaldo of the Pittsburgh Post Gazette reported last month:

I think for the Steelers, I think they're interested, but I think they're interested at their price and I think what Omar Khan is gonna do is he's gonna wait until it gets really uncomfortable for John Lynch and Kyle Shanahan," Fittipaldo told 93.7 The Fan when asked about Aiyuk and Pittsburgh. "And if you've noticed, Aiyuk is kind of starting to make it uncomfortable for the 49ers. So, I think...deadlines always spur these deals, right? As the season gets closer, I think the 49ers might have a little bit more urgency in moving him...

"...But yeah, listen guys: it's been out there since March. We've known this has been a thing since March, and I think if it's gonna happen, probably not gonna happen in June. I think it'll happen probably closer to training camp or the start of the season."

So we'll see where things go from here. Aiyuk is due to report to training camp in one week on July 23rd and will incur fines if he stays away.

Pittsburgh will be calling to try and make sure it doesn't even get to that point.