Mileage varies for everyone given all that’s happened (especially on social media) this off-season, but to Danny Rouhier, the mission is clear: now that Brandon Aiyuk has requested a trade, the Commanders absolutely have to go all in on trying to get him.
Mike Garafalo says Aiyuk has requested a trade, Adam Schefter says via the 49ers that he’s not for sale, and apparently, the Niners’ front office is telling interested teams that’s the case.
“I don’t know, but this is the last best effort from Aiyuk and his camp to get what they want; he wants the big contract, and if it's with San Francisco all the better, but if it's with someone else, that's fine too,” Danny said. “He doesn’t wanna play on the franchise tag like Tee Higgins, and I understand that in a violent, collision-based sport like this one where your career could be altered on any given play – and especially in San Francisco, where those guys have to block and be physical.”
But, Danny thinks if there’s a will, the Commanders should find a way.
“San Fran has a Super Bowl caliber team and has been there, and Aiyuk is a huge part of that. He has that physicality, the great hands, the intermediate speed, he could still do everything,” Danny said. “I think he is awesome, and I think that if he got a huge featured role on another offense, a decent one, I think he puts up better numbers than a huge percentage of receivers in this league. He’s a star whose career arc didn’t begin immediately with stardom, but last year was his best year, and I don’t think he’s done; I think he has a whole bunch of those years ahead of him.”
That, plus his connection with Jayden Daniels already, could be explosive while JD5 is on his rookie deal, and a humongous upgrade right away.
“Here is my contention, and here is where the smarter people than me, the better football people than me, the pudgy radio guy, step in: CBS has ranked Washington’s top trio of skill players 26th, ESPN ranked their weapons 25th or 36th, and Pro Football Focus has a similar record,” Danny said. “So you don’t have the weapons. Wide receiver they think they’re good with somebody from the Dyami Brown, Dax Milne, Olamide Zaccheus tier behind McLaurin, Dotson, and maybe McCaffrey – and I hope they’re right, but nobody else, including me, seems to think that.”
And to Danny, them being the minority, even with the better football minds, should be telling – and the development of QB1 should be P1.
“If you're a relentless homer, you'd go, ‘well, this front office is pretty smart,’ and I think they are by the way, but I think this is a huge miss, a giant miscalculation. This is a philosophical thing that I can't get around,” Danny said. “We have seen too many quarterbacks go to bad teams and fail, and then in retrospect, you say they didn’t provide that guy with very much and really didn’t do everything they could to help him. They were able to keep Tavita Pritchard and went and got Brian Johnson, who was instrumental in Jalen Hurts’ development, and you’ve got an offensive coordinator that's been around for some pretty good quarterbacking, so they're trying to build the nest that way. Smart thing to do, but the weaponry, I think they have made a huge mistake, and if it doesn’t work out, I think this is going to be the reason it doesn't. I hope Jayden Daniels is so good that he's able to overcome this, but they’re gambling that what they've got is good enough. If you’re not 100 percent sure, why not overkill? The only thing Ron Rivera and the Martys did right was leave this cupboard empty, and you turned over the roster already recognizing how untalented they were in a lot of spots – so I cannot believe they aren't so desperate to enhance and do everything possible to help Jayden Daniels. Show me the urgency.”