The one thing we can say for certain about the San Francisco 49ers' Brandon Aiyuk saga, is that nobody knows what is going to happen.
San Francisco has given Aiyuk and his agent permission to speak to potential trade partners about contract terms, negotiations with the Niners having hit an impasse months ago.
The 49ers were reported by NBC Sports Bay Area's Matt Maiocco to have agreed trade frameworks with the Cleveland Browns and the New England Patriots, with the Pittsburgh Steelers and Washington Commanders said to be out of the conversation.
However, speaking on NFL Network on Tuesday, Ian Rapoport described the situation as "more fluid than any other trade I can remember".
Prior to making that statement, Rapoport reported the Steelers are, in fact, still in discussions with the 49ers, a claim backed up by ESPN's Adam Schefter, who said Pittsburgh had re-engaged in talks with San Francisco.
With so many moving parts, there's no telling which way a long and fractious negotiation will end, and head coach Kyle Shanahan encapsulated the uncertainty in his answers in a press conference dominated by the Aiyuk news.
"There's a secenario for anything," Shanahan said when asked if there is a scenario for Aiyuk remaining with the 49ers and signing a long-term deal with San Francisco. "So I don't want to rule anything out."
That's par for the course for the coach who once famously said he could not "guarantee anybody in the world will be alive on Sunday" when asked in 2021 if Jimmy Garoppolo would be on the roster after that year's draft.
Shanahan has always seemed very comfortable in uncertain and awkward situations, however, he is clearly very keen for this one to end one way or another.
"You want it to be resolved badly, but this stuff does take time," Shanahan said.
"Everyday I hope it gets resolved, but I have no timetable on it. I'm going about coaching our team, getting ready for Week 1, and hopefully it'll get resolved sooner rather than later."
Anything and everything can still happen. The 49ers would clearly prefer to keep Aiyuk, however, with no sign of a positive resolution in that regard on the horizon, San Francisco may view simply lifting the cloud the saga has cast over the entire offseason as a positive at this point in the calendar.
Shanahan is a coach who is ready to deal with anything, but the momentum appears to be heading towards a parting the 49ers had long since insisted they did not want.
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