Jayden Daniels to Brandon Aiyuk, we’ve seen this connection before at Arizona State. And maybe we’ll get to see it again.
Where there is smoke there is Brandon Aiyuk. And where there is Brandon Aiyuk there is his disgruntled girlfriend, brother who talks shit about his current team, and a whole lot of fire.
Who started the fire? I don’t know, but we didn’t start the fire, right Billy? Jesus. All I know is that Brandon Aiyuk had something to do with it, even if Ian Rapoport was told by the 49ers to say that Aiyuk didn’t request a trade.
Alright, maybe it’s true that Brandon Aiyuk didn’t formally request a trade, but somebody’s doing some weird shit around here. I’m not a reporter, and I am in no way interested in getting to the bottom of the trade rumor origination.
But I am here to explain why it makes some sense that Aiyuk gets traded to the Washington Commanders… Let’s start with the obvious.
The Washington Commanders are probably going to draft Jayden Daniels on April 25th. They are going to want to surround their new quarterback with weapons. Yes, they have Jahan Dotson and Terry McLaurin. But McLaurin’s contract has an out after this year, and their is no connection to McLaurin going forward considering the current regime did not sign him to that deal.
However, the current Adam Peters lead regime does have a connection to Brandon Aiyuk. Peters was the assistant general manager with the 49ers last year and the vice president of player personnel when they drafted Aiyuk.
Peters spoke about Aiyuk after the 2020 draft, “…you see him on tape, this is a guy who comes up big in big moments. There’s third downs, fourth downs.” And he went on praise his versatility, “He can play inside, he can play outside, he can run routes inside, he can run the deep route outside.”
Peters clearly has a lot of good things to say about Aiyuk’s abilities. He also got to see those exact abilities on display for the last 4 years in San Francisco.
It’s only Peters first year in Washington so no one knows what he’ll do in the draft or how he’ll handle the trade market. When he was in San Francisco, the 49ers didn’t trade very much, only 8 trades since the start of the 2022 season.
The Commanders certainly have the ammo to make a move for Aiyuk if they wished, though. They have 9 picks in this years draft, 6 of which are in the top 100.
- Round 1: No. 2 overall
- Round 2: No. 36
- Round 2: No. 40 (from Chicago)
- Round 3: No. 67
- Round 3: No. 78 (from Seattle)
- Round 3: No. 100 (from San Francisco)
- Round 5: No. 139
- Round 5: No. 152 (from Seattle)
- Round 7: No. 222
Okay, but can they sign Aiyuk to the deal that he’s looking for? Glad you asked. Absolutely. The Commanders have the second most available cap space at $43,718,633. And with the Devonta Smith contract extension (3-years $75 million) there is a framework for what a new deal or extension looks like.
Now, according to BetOnline_ag, the Steelers are the favorites to land Aiyuk at +200. The Commanders are +2800. And with the brilliant and flawless logic I just laid out, why have you not already bet the Commanders?
How they arrived at these odds, I have no idea. But it’s not a zero percent chance that because Brandon Aiyuk looks like Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin in a wig, they made them +200 favorites. Just sayin… See the below picture for context and bet wisely…
