Brandon Aiyuk to Commanders Makes Sense but Faces June 1 Hurdle

The San Francisco 49ers are expected to cut veteran receiver Brandon Aiyuk, and the Washington Commanders are at the top of the list of teams we all expect him to land with after that happens.

In fact, at the end of the season, 49ers general manager John Lynch told reporters it was safe to say the receiver had played his last snap for the 49ers, and Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels recently, not-so-subtly, hinted he wanted Aiyuk to reconnect with him this offseason. The duo were teammates at Arizona State University prior to their respective leaps to the NFL.

So, it seems rather seamless that Washington and Aiyuk will or at least are highly likely to join forces in 2026. But it may not be as clean a process as most would like, and that alone complicates things.

Sep 15, 2024; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk (11) signals the referee against the Minnesota Vikings in the first quarter at U.S. Bank Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Brad Rempel-Imagn Images | Brad Rempel-Imagn Images

A complicated financial divorce

“Aiyuk’s situation is a complicated one. He played just seven games in 2024 and didn't play a single snap in 2025, amid recovery from a significant knee injury and an increasingly strained relationship with the team. This was all particularly bad timing after GM John Lynch and Co. signed the wide receiver to a four-year, $120 million contract extension just before the 2024 campaign, but it resulted in the team voiding his 2026 guaranteed money,” Matt Okada recently pointed out in an NFL.com column on cut candidates. “Now, cutting Aiyuk before June 1 would result in a painful $29.5 million in dead money (and no cap savings), but designating him as one of the 49ers' post-June 1 cuts (or trading him after that date, if they can find a suitor) would end up saving them $6.3 million. However, the messy saga ends, it seems destined to end in the next few months, and Aiyuk will end up on another team before the 2026 season.”

The part that gave me pause in relation to the Commanders bringing him aboard is, “it seems destined to end in the next few months…”

Of course, this isn’t a hard report stating that San Francisco will drag the process into the summer months, but it is a reminder that the organization really controls the future here. With Aiyuk not being viewed as the victim in any of what has happened between himself and the organization that drafted him in the first round of the 2020 NFL Draft, he really doesn’t have the leverage to force the issue either. Doing so via public postings and antics would only vilify him further in a messy split that, at best, views him as an equal problem, while many already see him as the main antagonist.

Clearly, it makes no sense for the 49ers to release Aiyuk and take on a massive dead cap hit in the process. The earliest they could do so, designating him a post-June 1st cut, and save money, is on March 11, the beginning of the new league year. So, until then, there’s no expectation that a move outside a trade could be made, and even a trade can’t be made official until that same date.

The post-June 1 trade dilemma

NFL teams don’t have a tendency to trade for players they know teams are going to release anyway, and if Washington did so, it would likely have to take all of the money attached so that San Francisco wouldn’t incur any dead cap space since trades cannot be designated Post-June 1 the way a release can.

If Lynch opts to hold on to Aiyuk in order to preserve one of his two Post June 1 cut designations or to try and force even a late round pick swap for the receiver, that makes it a little sloppier for a team like the Commanders and general manager Adam Peters who is already hurting in the draft capital department after sending two of his picks in the first four rounds to the Houston Texans last offseason.

Is the waiting game worth it?

Ideally, Washington would want Aiyuk on the roster and in the building when the offseason program begins in April, not a month and a half later, after June 1.

If Peters is unwilling to trade for the embattled receiver and Lynch holds the line until June, are the Commanders willing to go that far without a potential No. 2 receiver behind Terry McLaurin, while first-time offensive coordinator David Blough tries to shape his offense without Aiyuk on the ground?

It isn’t exactly a foregone conclusion that he’ll land in Washington anyway. Further complications are only going to make public support of the move fade, and it's not like Commanders fans are standing outside the gates in Ashburn chanting for Aiyuk to come anyway.

Stick with CommanderGameday and the Locked On Commanders podcast for more FREE coverage of the Washington Commanders throughout the 2026 offseason.