Jayden Daniels Drops Major Hint About Preferred Commanders Offseason Target

Washington Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels and San Francisco 49ers receiver Brandon Aiyuk were college teammates at Arizona State, and if they have it their way, they’ll be teammates again very soon.

At least, we can deduce as much from Aiyuk’s excitement surrounding Daniels’s arrival to the NFL in 2024, and the Commanders quarterback’s own vague yet very specific comments during the week of the Super Bowl in San Francisco.

“There's a couple of individuals that are out there, maybe somebody from Arizona State in my past... most definitely there's people out there on the West Coast... don't want to give too much... hopefully we can sign those types of players,” Daniels said to Yahoo! Sports’s Nate Tice when asked about receivers he may want Washington general manager Adam Peters to go after in the offseason.

Nov 23, 2019; Tempe, AZ, USA; Arizona State Sun Devils wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk (2) against the Oregon Ducks at Sun Devil Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images | Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

Connecting the dots to Aiyuk

Based on those comments, it isn’t too hard to connect the dots, and when you do, they all point to Aiyuk, the 49ers receiver who had his guaranteed money voided by the team for, among other things, failing to attend meetings and not participating in team activities while rehabbing a knee injury he suffered in the 2024 NFL season.

The two are close to this day, as we found out in no small way during the build-up to the 2024 season after Daniels was drafted by the Commanders and the two popped up together on social media almost daily for a stretch. In one offseason interview, while he and San Francisco were working out an eventual extension that promised Aiyuk $30 million per year, the receiver even hinted he wouldn’t mind playing with Daniels again in the NFL, if things didn’t work out with his current team.

Why the 49ers are moving on

After the team filed to void his guarantees, clearing the way for his release this offseason, Aiyuk instructed the NFLPA not to intervene to block the move. Those two actions are a clear indication that both the player and the team are in agreement that their time together has run its course.

In fact, 49ers general manager John Lynch even stated in his end of season press conference that it was “safe to say he’s played his last snap with the Niners.”

Some will argue that Aiyuk is throwing away $26 million, and while the story itself has been widely publicized and discussed, the receiver’s own behavior in the public space has been rather docile relative to the actions of other players I’ve seen in past years who have tried to force their way off of a team.

A low-risk, high-reward reunion

It’s safe to assume that Daniels and Aiyuk are still in regular contact with each other, as they have been since their days at Arizona State. And if the 49ers go through with their telegraphed action of releasing Aiyuk, then the market value on the receiver is projected to be around $12 million, near the equivalent of what Darius Slayton is earning as the New York Giants’ third receiver.

That’s a price tag worth paying to see if Aiyuk can return to form nearly two years after his injury, and given the publicly stated wishes of Daniels, it’s becoming a lot easier to see the duo who used to wear maroon and gold in Tempe, Arizona, wearing burgundy and gold in the DMV very soon.

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