5 bold trade targets for Detroit Lions to address their wide receiver concern

Detroit Lions head coach Dan Campbell is refreshingly easy to figure out. He tells it like it is, and regularly gives thorough answers (within reason of course) when reporters ask him questions. So when says basically the same thing on a topic in quick succession, you know it's a thing.

In the span of roughly 40 hours, Monday night and again on Wednesday morning, Campbell talked about the Lions' wide receiver depth and how someone needs to step up. A lingering concern far and wide all offseason regarding the Lions' wide receiver depth has come to roost now, with naturally fewer good options to address it.

There should be some suitable options on the trade market, and failing that there will be options as other teams make roster cuts. It's hard to see the Lions making a particularly big move at this point though. As Mike Payton of AtoZ Sports pointed out, there may have been overconfidence about the current wide receiver group, and it has proven to be as flimsy as it has always looked for some people.

But on the other hand, a season with legitimate eyes on going to (or even winning) the Super Bowl means there should be no half-measures to address roster weaknesses. After the top three on the depth chart, the Lions have one at wide receiver that isn't being addressed or fulfilled internally.

The likelihood of any "bolder" options to address the Lions' wide receiver concern can dismissed, debated, etc., on the idea of how much Brad Holmes holds draft capital sacred. But let's take a spin through some, if only highly hypothetically.

5 bold trade targets for the Detroit Lions to address their WR concern

5. Brandon Aiyuk, San Francisco 49ers

Aiyuk only gets a spot here because other analysts just can't let go of the idea of him to the Lions. The latest is Brad Gagnon of Bleacher Report, on a premise of seven other teams (besides the Steelers) who still make sense for him.

Trading for Aiyuk goes against all kinds of logic from the Lions' end, not the least of which is a report from back in May that he wants to be paid as much or more than Amon-Ra St. Brown in a new contract. To say nothing of any hesitancy the 49ers would have to trade him to the team that had them on the ropes for a half in last year's NFC Championship Game.

If things go a very specific (and unlikely?) way for Aiyuk; staying with the 49ers this year but still without a long-term contract, a deal for him at the trade deadline might make sense for the Lions if the price was right (and if they still have a need). But even that is a big reach.