The Washington Commanders have been quiet with regards to the Brandon Aiyuk social media saga over the last several weeks, but the team’s silence may actually be speaking volumes.
That was the interpretation of Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk on Saturday, July 4, when he took a stab at explaining why Washington hasn’t indicated one way or another its level of interest in signing the mercurial wide receiver if/when he ever gets his release from the San Francisco 49ers.
“There have been no reports or suggestions that they are [interested in Aiyuk],” Florio wrote. “Perhaps more importantly, there have been no reports or suggestions that they aren’t.”
“It’s only tampering to express public interest in a player under contract with another team. It’s not tampering to make it known that a team isn’t interested,” Florio continued. “If [the Commanders] aren’t, why not make it known? If nothing else, it would save Aiyuk a lot of time and effort. This suggests that they are.”
Brandon Aiyuk Has Not Played Football in Nearly 2 Years
GettyWide receiver Brandon Aiyuk of the San Francisco 49ers.
In the brutal Darwinism of the NFL ecosystem, talent is king. And Aiyuk, for all anyone knows, still has plenty of it.
He was an elite wideout in 2023 when he tallied 75 receptions, 1,342 yards and seven TDs across 16 games and earned second-team All-Pro honors.
Aiyuk inked a four-year deal worth $120 million following that campaign, but issues with the franchise were already approaching a boiling point. San Francisco was in the process of potentially trading Aiyuk before he suffered a catastrophic knee injury that ended his season after just seven games.
October of 2024 was the last time Aiyuk took a regular-season snap. He decided to forego pursuing rehabilitation with the 49ers organization, saying recently that he underwent rehab on his own with a group of his choosing.
Based on that decision and others — including boxing out the 49ers and maintaining essentially zero contact with San Francisco down the stretch of last year, when Aiyuk presumably should have been able to return to action — the 49ers voided all of the WR’s guaranteed money in 2026.
Aiyuk did not fight that decision, presumably because doing so would have complicated his exit from the organization in the most timely of fashions.
49ers Have Not Released Brandon Aiyuk, Which Means Commanders Can Only Pursue Him via Trade
GettyWide receiver Brandon Aiyuk of the San Francisco 49ers.
To this point in the offseason, the 49ers have held off on releasing Aiyuk.
Part of that equation is what feels like a forlorn hope that they might be able to trade him for a draft asset or player of some value. Though Aiyuk’s bizarre online behavior, in which he derides and bashes the 49ers organization regularly, appears to have all but slammed the door on that possibility. That he hasn’t played in going on two years doesn’t help the team’s cause, either.
But Florio wrote in June that San Francisco may be holding off on Aiyuk’s release out of spite, as doing so makes it harder for him to catch on with a team and get up to speed in time for the start of the season.
Training camps across the league begin at the end of July, and Aiyuk could probably force the 49ers’ hand by showing up to camp a few weeks from now and creating a high-profile distraction. Given that both the wideout and his current team understand this, Aiyuk has a reasonable chance of getting his release before the month is out.
At that point, Washington will be free to act, and the Commanders’ true position on Aiyuk will become clear.
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