A Commanders-49ers trade package that puts Brandon Aiyuk back in play for Washington

And look who is still standing... After everybody and their brother tried to trade San Francisco 49ers star wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk to the Pittsburgh Steelers, the best landing spot for him just did something interesting. That would be the Washington Commanders, who just traded Jahan Dotson to the division rival Philadelphia Eagles in the latter stages of the preseason. Why would you do that?

I think it signifies that Washington is not done just yet revamping its receiving corps. What you have to remember is it is a new regime in town. Adam Peters has come over from, you guessed it, the 49ers to run the front office. Dan Quinn left the Dallas Cowboys for his second stab at being an NFL head coach after failing in Atlanta. Who was his star offensive coordinator in 2016? It was Kyle Shanahan.

Not only that, but No. 2 overall pick Jayden Daniels was briefly college football teammates with Aiyuk at Arizona State. Even after Aiyuk turned pro and Daniels left for LSU en route to becoming last year's winner of the Heisman Trophy, they remain very close. To me, the Commanders have always checked more boxes to land Aiyuk than everyone else. This team might have a sneaky-good season as well.

So here is what I came up with to potentially get Aiyuk over to Washington for fair compensation.

The difficult part in figuring out what Washington would need to give up for Aiyuk is the nature of his contract. He is playing out his fifth-year option, meaning he will be compensated $14.124 million for this season, no matter where he plays. The 49ers will need to try to get something back comparable in terms of average annual value. Olamide Zaccheaus and those two picks get us to about $15.7M.

We are off by a million and change, but keep in mind that Aiyuk is going to likely get an extension.

Let's unpack this potential deal and what it could be mean for both teams, now and in the future.

How Commanders can trade for 49ers star wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk

One of the big holdups in the 49ers' attempts to get a deal done with the Steelers has been that they want a star, or near enough, wide receiver coming back their way. Well, I do not think Pittsburgh is ready to move on from George Pickens just yet. Perhaps trading away Diontae Johnson to the Carolina Panthers was not the best idea in the world in retrospect? Captain Hindsight strikes again!

Not to say the Commanders have something like that available, but it would be absolute lunacy for Washington to trade Terry McLaurin to San Francisco this late into the cycle. I do not think there is enough time to smooth over the transitional process of such a seismic move involving a pillar of Kliff Kingsbury's offense. Then again, this is the NFL, and we have seen stranger things happen before.

If we wanted to go Aiyuk for McLaurin straight up, that could work, but I am not counting on it. I feel a first-round pick in 2025 and a second-round pick in 2026, plus a capable complementary wide receiver in Zaccheaus could be enough. Keep in mind that Zaccheaus played for Quinn in Atlanta and would fit in very nicely into the type of passing game Shanahan will want to run with San Francisco.

Overall, I don't think we can undersell the connection Aiyuk has with Daniels, and potentially with Peters, just like I don't think we can undersell Quinn's connection to Shanahan, as well as Peters with his former boss in one John Lynch. People that know each other often do business with each other. These teams may be in the same conference, but I think they could the right trade partners for this.

The biggest question is who is going to pay Aiyuk want he wants, which is a $30 million AAV contract.