To say that the San Francisco 49ers signed Brandon Aiyuk at the last minute might be the understatement of the year. During the Fox Sports NFL broadcast, Jay Glazer had a report that a trade with the Pittsburgh Steelers was on the verge of being completed. And when we say moments, we mean moments.

“The day it actually happened, the 49ers traded him to the Pittsburgh Steelers. He was already on his way there. And then Brandon Aiyuk showed up at the facility early that day. Went down to meet Kyle Shanahan, Kyle Shanahan tried to get in touch with the main office, but they couldn’t take his call because they were trying to work out the trade with the Pittsburgh Steelers.

“So Shanahan ran all the way up there and said, ‘Wait a minute, let’s just put these trade talks on hold for now. Pittsburgh, we’ll call you back.’ They went down and talked to Aiyuk for about two hours and said, ‘Look, you have until the end of practice, we’ll trade you to Pittsburgh today or you can take the deal that’s on the table, it’s up to you, but you have until the end of practice.’

“He (Aiyuk) says, ‘This is where I want to be.’ Brandon Aiyuk is still a 49er.”

Shortly after news of the Aiyuk deal broke, Adam Schefter reported that the agreement was the same as the August 12th one. Given what Glazer says, that lends some credibility. Schefter was pressed by Aiyuk’s agent that the report was “factually incorrect,” but the inaccuracy appears to lie in the date Schefter originally gave as August 10th.

To say that this came down to the last thread is not even true. This came down to the last thread of that thread, since all the others had been cut. I wish I could see Kyle Shanahan get a busy signal from the front desk and then sprint through the facility to get to them and tell them to delay the Pittsburgh deal.

As for the Steelers. What we knew about them was that nothing they offered the 49ers was satisfactory. Aiyuk’s deal was close to the 49ers’ offer. There was a report days before the Michael Silver deal that indicated the Steelers and Washington Commanders could be back in the mix. However, all signs pointed to the 49ers and Aiyuk having resumed negotiations.

If this is any indication, the 49ers had basically had enough of the staredown and were willing to deal Aiyuk. Whether it was because Pittsburgh had a better offer at the last minute, the front office had had enough of the whole thing, or both. Aiyuk admitted that he made things harder than they needed to be.

We’ll likely get more information about what happened in these final moments of the season, but even after the Brandon Aiyuk story concludes, it’ll still be fascinating.

Only the 49ers could have such an offseason story.