Brandon Aiyuk is trying desperately to get the San Francisco 49ers to release him and the Washington Commanders to sign him, but the wide receiver appears to continually get in his own way in either, or both, of those regards — most recently by insulting and alienating Commanders star quarterback Jayden Daniels.
A social media feud between the two began with an incident on July 3 involving a 49ers fan yelling expletives about Aiyuk to Daniels, who was attending a World Cup match between Spain and Austria in Los Angeles. Daniels is shown laughing in the video, which Aiyuk apparently took as laughter directed at him personally.
Aiyuk’s response was to tag Daniels in a post to the WR’s Instagram story, which Aiyuk captioned: “Tf always so funny lil (expletive). Turn your savage up.”
The following day, Aiyuk implied that Daniels had communicated to him something along the lines of: “You on my team now, you follow my rules,” in Aiyuk’s words.
“I’m a grown [expletive] man, boy. You gonna have to start running behind yo mama and I might believe what you talking about,” Aiyuk said. “But until then, mm-mm.”
Between Aiyuk’s posts disparaging Daniels on July 3 and 4, the wideout unfollowed his former collegiate teammate at Arizona State on Instagram.
Jayden Daniels Responds to Brandon Aiyuk, Unfollows Him
GettyWashington Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels.
Then it was Daniels’ turn to offer an insight into how he actually feels about Aiyuk.
Daniels took a more subtle approach than Aiyuk, posting a meme of Houston Rockets star player Kevin Durant to his own IG story on July 4, in which Durant is holding up a double thumbs-down. A popular online interpretation was that Daniels intended that post as a response to Aiyuk.
The Washington QB then also appeared to unfollow Aiyuk on Instagram.
A fake post subsequently made the rounds on social media, in which a publisher pretending to be Daniels posted the message “Enjoy retirement pal✌️,” and tagged Aiyuk.
Grant Cohn of ON SI shared the post with his 60,000 X followers, though it was pointed out in the comments section that the content was actually made by an NFL parody account.
Brandon Aiyuk’s Attacks on Jayden Daniels May Motivate Commanders to Seek Out Other Wide Receivers
GettyWide receiver Brandon Aiyuk of the San Francisco 49ers.
Whether the Commanders are willing to take a shot on Aiyuk remains unclear. However, Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk pointed to what he believes is a strong signal that Washington is in on the wideout.
“There have been no reports or suggestions that they are [interested in Aiyuk],” Florio wrote July 4. “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 added. “If [the Commanders] aren’t, why not make it known? … This suggests that they are.”
Washington has a thin receiver room and Aiyuk was a second-team All-Pro the last time he played close to a full season in 2023 (16 games). But Aiyuk has behaved as combatively as he has bizarrely across several IG videos in recent weeks, during which he has insulted the 49ers and specific members of their leadership group, including general manager John Lynch and head coach Kyle Shanahan.
Now, Aiyuk has alienated Daniels, the Commanders’ franchise quarterback. And if Daniels doesn’t want Aiyuk in the building, that may be enough for Washington to wash its hands of the wideout and look at other options.
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