What happened to the Washington Commanders?
The San Francisco 49ers gave wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk permission to talk to the Commanders and three other teams at the outset of their trade discussions. The 49ers have worked out deals with three of those teams – the Cleveland Browns, New England Patriots and Pittsburgh Steelers.
It never seemed like the Commanders were in the mix despite Aiyuk’s apparent desire to play there.
The San Francisco Chronicle’s Mike Silver and NFL Media’s Peter Schrager have both recently floated the Commanders idea again after Washington acquired an additional third-round pick in a trade that sent wide receiver Jahan Dotson to the Eagles.
There are plenty of dots to connect between the teams. Commanders general manager Adam Peters was in the 49ers’ front office for the entire Kyle Shanahan-John Lynch tenure until this offseason. Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels also played at Arizona State with Aiyuk. Tack on a new third-round pick to play with and things get interesting.
The problem here is the Commanders have never appeared to have any interest in pursuing Aiyuk. There hasn’t been any reporting about Washington offering Aiyuk a contract, which helps explain why they’re the only team of the initial four to not work out a trade with the 49ers.
If they weren’t willing to have those talks in early August, it’s hard to imagine they’re going to suddenly pick up the phone and try to work out a trade less than two weeks before the regular season begins.
Alas, the rumor mill is going to churn until there’s a resolution to the Aiyuk contract saga. Things are still at the same tipping point they’ve been at for awhile. The Steelers are hoping to trade for Aiyuk and have a deal in place with the 49ers. Meanwhile, San Francisco and their All-Pro wide receiver are one hurdle away from coming to an agreement on a deal.
While the Commanders make sense as a trade partner logically, it appears Aiyuk will suit up for either the Steelers or 49ers (with a lean toward the latter) this season.
