While training camps start to open around the league, there are a number of notable veteran players still looking for places to play during the 2026 season.
That list includes wide receiver Deebo Samuel, who became a free agent in March when his contract with the Commanders expired. In a YouTube video, Samuel said that his extended time as a free agent has “kind of been tough” but that he is confident he’s ready to hit the ground running once a chance to play materializes.
“Some people ask like, “Are you ready to hang it up?” And I’m like, ‘Nah, everything’s got timing,’” Samuel said. “I promise you when the time come, it’s going to come. And I’m overly prepared, overly ready for the moment. And whenever that right opportunity show up, we here first, man, and ready to rock out.”
Samuel scored 42 touchdowns as a receiver and runner over six seasons with the 49ers and he caught 72 passes for 727 yards and five touchdowns after being traded to the Commanders last year. That production was down from his best years with the Niners and it remains to be seen where he might get a chance to show he still has a lot in the tank.
Commanders Clips
The NFL Players Association released its annual Rising Stars list on Tuesday and the first overall pick of this year’s draft is one of the players at the top.
Raiders quarterback Fernando Mendoza is No. 1 on the list of the 10 rookies that the NFLPA projects to be future members of the Top 50 list of licensed player product sales. There is also a list of 10 players with NFL experience who have not been on the Top 50 and it is topped by Saints quarterback Tyler Shough.
Mendoza is followed on the list by Cowboys safety Caleb Downs, Cardinals running back Jeremiyah Love, Titans wide receiver Carnell Tate, Eagles wide receiver Makai Lemon, Commanders linebacker Sonny Styles, Saints wide receiver Jordyn Tyson, Giants linebacker Arvell Reese, Ravens wide receiver Ja’Kobi Lane, and Buccaneers edge rusher Rueben Bain.
The list of veteran players also includes Bears tight end Colston Loveland, Raiders tight end Brock Bowers, Chiefs running back Kenneth Walker, Panthers wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan, Buccaneers wide receiver Emeka Egbuka, Cardinals tight end Trey McBride, Dolphins running back De’Von Achane, Bills running back James Cook, and Patriots cornerback Christian Gonzalez.
Five years after former Washington quarterback Robert Griffin III announced, then scrapped, a tell-all book about his time with an inherently dysfunctional franchise, Griffin is apparently ready to tell his story. Or at least part of it.
Griffin, while wearing a full uniform of the franchise he played for in 2012 (including a jersey with the abandoned name and a helmet with the expunged logo), moves his 2012 NFL offensive rookie of the year trophy from a chair and then sits down. A graphic on the screen says, “Preparing for my Netflix Documentary about why they kept running me when I only had one leg against Seattle in 2012.”
He’s referring to the wild-card game against the Seahawks, during which his heavily-braced right leg gave out.
Griffin originally injured his knee in Week 14 against the Ravens. After missing only one game, he returned for the final two weeks of the regular season and the playoff game against the Seahawks.
His career wasn’t the same after that. He started 13 games in 2013 and seven in 2014. By 2015, the team had put him in bubble wrap to avoid his injury-guaranteed fifth-year option for 2016, playing Kirk Cousins instead. Griffin then spent one year with the Browns and three with the Ravens before his NFL career ended.
It’s unclear whether the documentary will cover other aspects of Griffin’s time in Washington. His book would have apparently touched on a variety of topics, including (as he said in 2021) “my experience with sexual harassment in Washington,” adding in a video announcing the book: “I’m gonna open your eyes to the sexual harassment that permeated the walls of that building.”
Griffin later had “second thoughts” about the book project. His agent denied that the decision was influenced by any direct or indirect pressure from the team, the league, or Griffin’s employer at the time, ESPN.
UPDATE 9:02 p.m. ET: So apparently this isn’t real. I mean, it’s real, but RGIII has decided to get on an apparently cool and hip meme to pretend you’re doing at Netflix documentary. (At times like this, I’m glad I’m old.) But it’s one thing for some random person to do it. It’s another for someone who would plausibly be the subject of a Netflix documentary to do it.
The Commanders unveiled new uniforms for the 2026 season earlier this year and they’ve now announced the schedule of what duds they’ll be wearing each week of the year.
They will open the season against the Eagles wearing their white uniforms and they’ll wear those uniforms five more times during the season. They’ll sport their burgundy jerseys for nine games, including their Week 3 home opener against the Seahawks.
For the other two games, the Commanders will sport their “Hail Raiser” alternates. That look includes black jerseys and pants along with a black helmet that includes a spear piercing the team’s “W” logo.
The games with the alternates will be a Week 11 Monday night home game against the Bengals and a Week 15 home date with the Falcons.
Ten years ago (or thereabouts), stories began to emerge about NFL quarterbacks using virtual reality to augment their training.
The talk quieted fairly quickly, apparently because teams that were using it didn’t want to publicize how well it works.
That’s what made the inclusion of an extended look at Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels using a VR headset in the new season of Quarterback on Netflix a bit surprising.
“They select the play and I’ve got seven seconds to kind of process what coverage I think they’re in and the ball snaps and you’ve got to go out there and make a quick decision,” Daniels said.
The two-plus-minute segment includes both head coach Dan Quinn and then-quarterbacks coach (now offensive coordinator) David Blough talking about the benefits of the system.
“I can say, ‘Hey, we’re expecting this play against three coverages. Can I get these three coverages brought into the system,’” Blough said. “And then he’s able to see different defenses and operate from there.”
“You might have not had that exact play at practice,” Quinn said, “but now that you do, there’s recall that goes with it.”
It also gives a quarterback a chance to see, as explained by Cognilize CEO Verena Krakau, everything in the next stadium where a team will be playing, such as the location of the play clock.
One coach who, in recent years, was fairly talkative about the VR system was former Buccaneers coach Bruce Arians. In June 2019, he expressed hope that then-starter Jameis Winston had embraced it. (Given that Winston threw 30 interceptions in his first and only season with Arians, Winston possibly didn’t.)
The next year, Arians said new starter Tom Brady was “falling in love” with the VR system Arians had brought with him from Arizona. And the 2020 season culminated in a Super Bowl win.
Basically, any team that isn’t using VR for quarterback training should be. Which further explains the general reluctance of teams that are using it to zip it.
The football world has noticed the social-media antics of 49ers receiver Brandon Aiyuk in recent weeks. Former 49ers quarterback and Hall of Famer Steve Young has, and he expressed concern for Aiyuk on Thursday, from the American Century Championship in Lake Tahoe, Nevada.
“I worry for him,” Young said, via Edward Lewis of the New York Post. “I feel like I want to reach out and help. This is beyond football, it feels like. . . . It just feels like we need to not make it about football right now.”
Earlier this week, former 49ers executive Ran Carthon expressed similar concern, suggesting he’d reach out to Aiyuk.
It’s possible that more than a few NFL figures have tried to advise Aiyuk, who wants to sign with the Commanders. Until he files a petition for reinstatement with the 49ers and shows up for training camp (which likely could force his release), it will be clear that he’s not listening.
To anyone.
Jayden Daniels has a social media feud with Brandon Aiyuk, who has expressed interest in playing in Washington. While the embattled 49ers wide receiver continues to talk noise, the Commanders quarterback has quietly gone back to work.
Daniels worked with his wide receivers, running backs and tight ends in Los Angeles.
Commanders wide receiver Dyami Brown posted a photo of the 12 players participating in the offseason work.
Terry McLaurin was among those present.
Daniels is entering his third NFL season, coming off a sophomore season that saw him play only seven games. He was on the injury report every game except the opener.
John Riggins won a Super Bowl while wearing No. 44 in Washington and no other players will be wearing that number in the future.
The Commanders announced on Thursday that they will be retiring Riggins’ number during the 2026 season. The team will hold a ceremony to honor Riggins during halftime of their Week 9 game against the Rams.
Riggins spent the first five seasons of his career with the Jets before moving on as a free agent. He would spend the rest of his career in Washington and posted four 1,000-yard seasons with a career best of 1,347 yards coming in 1983. He also set a franchise record — tied for sixth in NFL history — by running for 24 touchdowns that season and he added six more scores in the postseason.
Riggins also had four touchdowns in the 1982 playoffs, including a 43-yard score in the fourth quarter of the Super Bowl XVII win over the Dolphins.
“Riggo, as many know him, helped define one of the most successful eras in our history,” Commanders owner Josh Harris said in a statement. “He played with a rare combination of physicality, fearlessness and personality that captivated fans and inspired his teammates.”
Riggins still holds franchise records with 7,472 rushing yards and 79 rushing touchdowns. He was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1992.
It’s hard to miss the ongoing developments in the Brandon Aiyuk saga, especially since some of you send an email whenever he posts a new video on Instagram.
Most recently, Aiyuk had another message for Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels and a general point about his intended social-media habits if/when he lands with a new team.
As to Daniels, Aiyuk said this: “He said, ‘I don’t do that Internet shit, bro. Hit my phone if you gotta talk to me, bro. You got my number.’ I called . . . he don’t answer. Hit my phone, bro. It’s important. It’s the money on the line.”
Aiyuk also explained his “social-media antics” by saying this: “Well, shit, I gotta get paid somehow. ‘Cause the employer holding me captive without pay. At least social media paying.”
Aiyuk then said that, even when he’s back in the NFL, “I’m still gonna be on my bullshit on social media.”
None of it matters until Aiyuk petitions the league for reinstatement from the reserve/left squad list and then, when reinstated, reports for camp with the 49ers. At that point, their only sensible move would be to cut him.
But Aiyuk has said he won’t be “reinstating” with the 49ers. Which shows that he knows exactly what he needs to do to put the 49ers in checkmate, and that he refuses to do it.
Until Aiyuk does, anything else he says is noise. And it seems that no amount of noise will persuade the 49ers to release him from the reserve/left squad list, because it costs them not a penny to keep him there.
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.
