The Commanders have hired Demitrius Washington as a senior personnel executive, Jori Epstein of Yahoo Sports reports.
Washington replaces Scott Fitterer, who left the Commanders to join Athletes First.
Washington previously worked with Commanders General Manager Adam Peters in San Francisco. Washington worked in the 49ers’ football research and development department from 2015-21, overlapping with Peters from 2017-21.
Washington spent the past four years in the Vikings’ front office, most recently as assistant General Manager.
49ers Clips
In 2021, Trey Lance went third overall to the 49ers, and Mac Jones followed 12 picks later to the Patriots. Lance is a backup with the Chargers, his third team, and Jones is a backup with the 49ers, his third team.
It took Jones four years to end up with the team he thought he should have joined on his draft day.
“I remember like all the hype leading up to it, but yeah, I think everything happens for a reason,” Jones said on Bussin’ with the Boys, via David Bonilla of 49erswebzone.com. “Like I’m here where I’m at now, and I did think [they might draft me]. They traded up for somebody, and I knew it was one of two people, and I was one of the people. So, I guess if you’re a gambling man, it’s a 50/50 shot at the start.”
It was unclear who the 49ers wanted to draft that year as they kept their choice under wraps. Jones had no indication what San Francisco was doing until the team selected Lance after trading the 12th overall pick, first-round picks in 2022 and 2023 and a 2022 third-round pick to the Dolphins.
Jones joked that he could have saved the 49ers the draft picks if they had stood pat and selected him.
“You could have just picked me at 12,” Jones said. “I don’t know if I’m worth three first-round picks, but shit, sign me up.”
No one traded for Jones this offseason, so he will remain Brock Purdy’s backup this season in the final year of his contract.
The 49ers have gotten another draft pick under contract.
Fourth-round pick Gracen Halton has signed his four-year rookie deal, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reports.
The defensive tackle’s contract is worth $5.62 million.
Halton played his college ball at Oklahoma from 2022-2025, becoming a second-team All-SEC honoree in his final collegiate season.
He was the No. 107 overall pick in this year’s draft.
The NFL is making a significant change to the offseason calendar for the 2027 season.
Tom Pelissero of NFL Media reports that the free agent negotiating window will open on March 9 next year. That is the same date that the two-day window opened this year, but the change comes in how close it will be to the end of the Scouting Combine.
NFL teams will wrap up their examinations and interrogations of incoming prospects on March 8 in 2027, which moves the league away from having a week or so between the two events as they have in past years.
Under that setup, the Combine has always been rife with table-setting for free agency as agents and team executives are all in the same place with their minds on the same things. With that gap eliminated, there will likely be even more of that work being done in Indianapolis so that teams are ready to make moves right from the starting gun.
Receiver Brandon Aiyuk’s path to free agency, as we’ve said before (more than a few times) is simple. One, file a petition with the league for reinstatement from the reserve/left squad list. Two, once reinstated, show up for training camp. At that point, the 49ers most likely would release him.
Aiyuk has made it clear that he won’t be doing that.
In his latest Instagram story — which consists of a statement, not a video — Aiyuk says this: “I will not be reinstating with them or ever doing any kind of business with them. I’m locked in and focused on my opportunity to return to the field this season! #RAISEHAIL”
In a separate post, Aiyuk accused the 49ers of lying to the media and the fan base regarding the decision to void his guarantees and his intent to return to the team.
Regardless, unless the 49ers release him from the reserve/left squad list (they have no incentive to do that), he’ll continue to be in limbo. The thing he refuses to do is the one thing he needs to do in order to force the team’s hand.
Either he doesn’t realize this or he doesn’t care. Neither explanation will get him to the Commanders.
49ers fullback Kyle Juszczyk called Mike Evans “unguardable” during the offseason practices. 49ers tight end George Kittle concurs.
Kittle lauded Evans’ veteran leadership and football IQ.
“One thing that I was talking to [quarterback Brock] Purdy about a couple of days ago was that this is our first veteran wide receiver since we had Emmanuel Sanders,” Kittle said recently on the New Heights podcast, via David Bonilla of 49erswebzone.com. “Like, I had Deebo [Samuel]. I had Brandon Aiyuk. But they were both like years one through four—Deebo was like year five.
“But Mike Evans is a guy, like, just watching him and his savviness—you know the concept; you have coverage in the red zone; one guy has the corner; the other guy has the ‘now’ route underneath it—and the way he sets it up versus a defender with outside leverage and then just gets wide open, and I’m just like, ‘It’s so fun to watch.’”
The 49ers, even with all their injuries last season, still finished fifth in passing offense. If Evans can stay healthy, he should make them even better.
Evans’ NFL-record 11 consecutive 1,000-yard seasons to start his career ended last season when he had career-lows in catches (30), yards (368) and touchdowns (three) because of a collarbone injury that limited him to a career-low eight games.
“Just so savvy,” Kittle said. “Catches everything; runs great routes; gives great effort. I’m all-in on Mike Evans.”
The 49ers have executed some important business to start the week.
According to the league’s daily transaction wire, San Francisco has signed third-round pick Romello Height.
A defensive end out of Texas Tech, Height was the No. 70 overall pick in this year’s draft. He was the second selection San Francisco made in 2026 after receiver De’Zhaun Stribling in the second round.
Height played at Auburn, USC, Georgia Tech, and Texas Tech in his collegiate career from 2020-2025.
At a time when it’s not clear whether receiver Brandon Aiyuk is getting any advice — or whether he’s listening to the advice he’s getting — a former NFL G.M. who knows Aiyuk plans to connect with him.
Appearing Monday on SiriusXM NFL Radio, former Titans G.M. Ran Carthon, who worked for the 49ers during Aiyuk’s first three years in San Francisco, addressed Aiyuk’s recent social-media video habit, including Saturday’s decision to cross swords with Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels.
“There’s something there, and I’m being as transparent as transparent can be,” Carthon said. “B.A. and I, we have a relationship. I was there when we drafted him, and through time spent in the same building, we have a relationship. I honestly have been going back and forth in my head over the last week or so and I really want to reach out to him on a personal level and see if he’s willing to have the conversation, because I think there’s something there that hasn’t quite been unlocked. I don’t know if ‘unlocked’ is the right word. But I do agree with you, this isn’t the Brandon Aiyuk I know. Now, I know him to be stubborn, so I know that part about him.
“But this recent behavior, I’m not as familiar with. And the other part of it, to be quite honest, in this day and age with these guys, it could just be him trolling with the most recent video, knowing that he will get a reaction. And maybe even trying to figure out — these guys are fairly smart — so maybe he’s like, ‘OK, maybe if I create enough buzz in saying whatever he said to Jayden [Daniels] online, then the 49ers won’t think I’m just trying to get to Washington.
“Maybe that’s a game being played right now. But in full transparency, it’s something, probably when we get off the air, I may just shoot a text and say, ‘Hey man, let’s connect.’ I just want to see where his head is and offer him any advice that I can, or be a sounding board.”
Someone needs to tell Aiyuk that it would be a good idea to stop the videos, and to petition the NFL for reinstatement from the 49ers’ reserve/left squad list. That’s the first tangible step toward securing the free agency Aiyuk wants.
At a time when Commanders fans wonder whether Brandon Aiyuk will ever arrive, it’s important not to forget about a receiver who’s back for a second bite at the apple.
Dyami Brown, after a season in Jacksonville, has returned to Washington for a second stint.
Via Tony Adams of Heavy.com, a workout video posted by Brown on Friday makes a bold declaration.
“That’s for the old me,” Brown says at the end of the session after taking a swig of hydration. “And the old me gets a drink of water. The new me gonna make it rain. Watch.”
Brown entered the league with promise as a 2021 third-round pick from North Carolina (back when, before its current coach, UNC produced draftable talent). But the production never matched the potential.
As a rookie, Brown had 165 receiving yards on 12 catches in 15 games. In Year 2, he also appeared in 15 games. The good news is that he had an eye-popping 28.3 yards per catch. The bad news is that he had only five catches, for 143 yards.
In 2023, Brown had 12 catches in 17 games, for 168 yards. He performed better in his contract year, relatively speaking. But, still, 30 catches for 308 yards won’t make demand spike on the open market.
But then came the 2024 postseason, and a different Dyami Brown emerged. In the wild-card win over the Buccaneers, he had five catches on five targets for 89 yards and a touchdown. In the divisional upset win over the Lions, eight targets, six catches, 98 yards. Another 42 yards against the Eagles in the NFC Championship slaughter gave Brown 229 receiving yards for the three-game postseason — more yards than any of his first three full seasons.
Brown landed in Jacksonville, where coach Liam Coen said Brown would have a bigger role. It didn’t happen; 14 games, six starts, 37 targets, 20 catches, 227 yards, one touchdown. And five drops, matching his total from four years in Washington.
In the offseason, Brown signed a one-year, $1.75 million deal to return to the Commanders. And, especially without Aiyuk, the door is open for Brown to contribute.
Currently, there are no big names beyond Terry McLaurin on the depth chart. Treylon Burks is expected to be a starter, as is third-round rookie Antonio Williams. Brown is projected for now to be a second-string option.
If he truly is a “new me,” Brown should be able to get on the field, and to get some targets. By the end of quarterback Jayden Daniels’s rookie season, they had chemistry. If, as it appears, the chemistry experiment between Daniels and Aiyuk has gone the way of Peter Brady’s volcano, Brown’s sixth NFL season has a chance to be his best.
Brandon Aiyuk keeps burning bridges.
He may have burned the one bridge that would have led him to the Commanders — his former Arizona State teammate.
Earlier today, after posting an item regarding whether the Commanders have interest in Aiyuk, someone in a position to know a little something about the situation pointed out that the Commanders would indeed pursue the 49ers receiver, if quarterback Jayden Daniels wants Aiyuk on the team. And it was believed that Daniels did indeed want Aiyuk.
Then, all hell broke loose on social media.
Aiyuk, as many have noticed, unfollowed Daniels on Instagram. Then, Aiyuk posted on his Instagram story a couple of videos directed at Daniels.
In one, Aiyuk says this: “You on my team now. You follow my rules. Boy, I’m a grown ass man, boy. You gonna have to stop running your mama and I might believe what you’re talking about. But until then, [no].”
In the next video, which has no audio, Aiyuk holds a pair of shoes behind a graphic that says: “Let’s run it 5! Let’s see! Need you available all [season] and I’ll do the same!”
Daniels apparently has stopped following Aiyuk on Instagram. Daniels’s Instagram story currently consists of an image of NBA star Kevin Durant showing a double thumbs down.
The issue possibly traces to the recent video of a 49ers fan repeatedly yelling at Daniels, “Fuck Brandon Aiyuk!” Daniels responds by smiling and laughing. Aiyuk apparently didn’t appreciate that.
Regardless, Daniels is the key to Aiyuk landing with the Commanders. If Daniels wants Aiyuk, the front office will be inclined to go along. If Daniels doesn’t, it won’t happen.
As of now, it looks like it won’t happen.
None of it matters until the 49ers release Aiyuk. And that likely won’t happen until he petitions the league for reinstatement from the reserve/left squad list and, once reinstated, Aiyuk shows up for training camp.
