Washington’s season already felt bruised after a 31-0 humiliation against the Vikings, but Jayden Daniels’ latest elbow scare pushed anxiety into overdrive. The rookie re-aggravated the same arm issue that had already cost him three games and never returned after exiting in Minneapolis, and there are a lot of NFL rumors about this.
Head coach Dan Quinn stressed that the injury is not believed to be season-ending and called these remaining weeks “an important development time” for his quarterback, yet the Commanders now walk a tightrope between protecting their franchise piece and giving him badly needed reps as they stumble through a 3-10 campaign.
While the medical staff monitors Daniels, the front office is staring at a different kind of puzzle. Washington is short on premium picks after the Laremy Tunsil trade, and league insiders expect most of what they do have to be poured into a defense that needs everything, from edge rush to help on the back end.
Even so, one offensive name keeps circling back to Ashburn: Brandon Aiyuk. Around the NFL, Washington is widely mentioned as a logical landing spot because Aiyuk is believed to be interested in reuniting with his old Arizona State teammate, Jayden Daniels, if the opportunity arises, per ESPN.
That fit looks even cleaner when you consider how little pass-rush juice Washington added last offseason. Jeremy Fowler noted it surprised evaluators that the Commanders did not aggressively chase help off the edge, and the numbers back that criticism up: Dorance Armstrong, who tore his ACL in Week 7, still leads the team with just 5.5 sacks.
General manager John Lynch emphasized that San Francisco has “very few” rules but felt it had “no other recourse” in this case, while also admitting the offense is better when Aiyuk is on the field. His long-term future, and even his willingness to play if cleared, are open questions after last year’s devastating knee injury.
Whether they can afford both the draft capital for a trade and the resources to fix a broken defense is another story, but the idea of pairing an emerging dual-threat star with a proven route technician is why the Aiyuk–Daniels link isn’t going away anytime soon.
