By canceling their mandatory minicamp, the 49ers avoided a potentially awkward moment with receiver Brandon Aiyuk.
Even if the team had excused Aiyuk, he could have insisted on attending and practicing. The 49ers would have had to decide whether to let him do it, or whether to release him.
Instead, by having no reason for Aiyuk to show up for the mandatory minicamp, the 49ers have preserved the ability to squat on Aiyuk’s contract. Which is what they have been doing, and what they apparently plan to keep doing.
Aiyuk has posted a message to his current team on Instagram.
“Stop running from the belt,” Aiyuk said in the video. “The belt coming. You scared. They scared. The truth is they scared. They know how I get. They gonna say, ‘Oh, yeah, B.A. did this, B.A. did that.’ You know that shit — ‘Allegedly. Allegedly.’ But what they not gonna say is ‘B.A. suck at football,’ because they know how I get.
“And they running from that belt that’s on the way. It’s inevitable. It’s coming. Stop running.”
The 49ers, frankly, are holding onto Aiyuk’s rights because they can. The relationship collapsed after Aiyuk suffered a torn ACL in Week 7 of the 2024 season, less than two weeks after signing a four-year, $120 million extension on the brink of the 49ers trading him to the Steelers.
Aiyuk later defaulted on the contract, allowing the team to void more than $26 million in guarantees for 2026. (Aiyuk didn’t challenge the move.) It gives the 49ers the ability to delay cutting Aiyuk until the eve of training camp — if he plans to show up. (Although his salary for 2026 wouldn’t become fully guaranteed as termination pay under the CBA unless and until he’s on the Week 1 roster, a season-ending injury during camp would entitle him to his pay.)
Instead, the 49ers have been holding out for a trade offer. With no one willing to inherit his current contract, Aiyuk would have to rework the deal in order to facilitate a trade.
The incentive for the Commanders (or another team) to do that came from the ability to get Aiyuk up to speed via the offseason program. With OTAs and mandatory minicamps ending soon, there’s less leverage for the 49ers in June and July.
They still have cards to play. If Aiyuk doesn’t report for camp, they can put him on the reserve/did not report list. They can keep him from signing with another team until he walks through the door and forces them to deal with him. In theory, his career would slip into limbo if he doesn’t show up.
In most circumstances like this, the team could be accused of playing dirty pool with the player. In the present case, the 49ers have good reason to be upset with Aiyuk, and to be unwilling to make a return to football with the Commanders or another team any easier for him.
Aiyuk’s best play is to show up for training camp and wait to be released. The 49ers’ best play is to do nothing until he does. When he does, the 49ers would be wise to release him before he suffers a new injury that would put them on the hook for another major financial obligation.
Commanders Clips
The Jets added a wide receiver to their roster on Thursday.
They announced the signing of Gee Scott. There was no corresponding move needed to clear space for Scott as the Jets waived wideout Da’Quan Felton on Wednesday.
Scott entered the league as an undrafted free agent in 2025 and signed with the Patriots. He spent time on their practice squad and on Washington’s before the Commanders released him earlier this year.
Scott played 51 games at Ohio State and saw most of his time as a tight end while with the Buckeyes. He was a teammate of Jets wideout Garrett Wilson for a couple of seasons and finished his college time with 47 catches for 393 yards and four touchdowns.
Veteran tight end Anthony Firkser has found a new team.
The Commanders announced that they have signed Firkser to their 90-man roster on Tuesday. They waived wide receiver Ja’Corey Brooks in a corresponding move.
Firkser had eight catches for 53 yards in seven games with the Lions last season. He also played two games for the Lions in 2023 and split the 2024 season between the Jets and the Chiefs. He had nine catches for 100 yards in 11 games for the Falcons in 2022.
Firkser spent his first four NFL seasons with the Titans and had 106 catches for 1,107 yards and five touchdowns.
Brooks signed with Washington as an undrafted free agent in 2025 and spent the season on the practice squad.
The Commanders have been seen as a landing spot for wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk since it became clear he would not be playing for the 49ers anymore, but Aiyuk remains on the roster for San Francisco.
Aiyuk has no guaranteed money left on his contract after the 49ers voided the remaining guarantees last year, so there’s no particular time pressure for the team to release him and the Commanders have not shown any willingness to give up assets to trade for him. One of the reasons the Commanders have been seen as a suitor is the presence of Aiyuk’s college teammate Jayden Daniels, but the quarterback said he doesn’t have any insight into how things will play out.
“I don’t know, I don’t have a sense on it,” Daniels said, via multiple reporters. “That is my brother and we have a personal relationship. His football future, that’s out of my control.”
Aiyuk has not played a game since Week 7 of the 2024 season and the absence of any sense of when things might be resolved with the 49ers makes it hard to expect to see him on the field for the Commanders or anyone else in the near future.
Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels was the NFL’s Offensive Rookie of the Year in 2024. His encore was not as expected.
After a challenging second season, Daniels said he feels like he has something to prove. But it’s the same feeling he had after his first season.
“If you don’t feel you have something to prove, then you shouldn’t be in this profession,” Daniels said, via John Keim of ESPN.
The Commanders went 5-12 in 2025, with Daniels playing only seven games because of injuries to a knee, hamstring and his left elbow. He threw for 1,262 yards, with eight touchdowns and three interceptions.
“It left a bitter taste in my mouth,” Daniels said. “I mean, it sucked. . . . [It was] a miserable feeling to not go out and do what I do on a daily basis and having setbacks.”
Daniels has a new offensive coordinator, with David Blough replacing Kliff Kingsbury. So far, so good.
“I love the offense. I love what Blough is doing,” Daniels said. “Love how he’s creating and designing different things. It’s awesome to see his creative mind; we’re building this thing together.”
The Commanders had one of the worst defenses in the league during the 2025 season and their efforts to improve that side of the ball have been met with emphatic approval from one returning member of the defensive line.
Javon Kinlaw has been joined up front by new additions Tim Settle, Odafe Oweh, K’Lavon Chaisson, and Charles Omenihu and he made sure there was no mistaking his feelings about the move when he was asked about the changes on Wednesday.
“We’ve got some motherf——s now,” Kinlaw said, via Scott Abraham of 7NewsDC.
Kinlaw then rattled off the above names as well as those of Daron Payne, Dorrance Armstrong, Deatrich Wise, and Jer’Zhan Newton while saying “he can go” to underscore his belief in how much the group brings to the table.
“It’s gonna be exciting,” Kinlaw said. “It’s gonna be super exciting to play with these guys, for sure. A lot of talent. I’m just excited. I’m super excited.”
The Commanders also added first-round pick Sonny Styles and free agent Leo Chenal at linebacker while making a number of moves in the secondary that they hope create the same kind of excitement to a larger audience this fall.
Once again this offseason, the Giants are taking a look at a defensive tackle.
Per Ian Rapoport of NFL Network, veteran Eddie Goldman worked out for New York on Tuesday.
Goldman, 32, spent last season with the Commanders. He appeared in 13 games with six starts, recording 26 total tackles with four tackles for loss and one QB hit.
Goldman came out of retirement to play the 2024 season with the Falcons, appearing in 17 games with 10 starts. He tallied 16 total tackles with one TFL, three QB hits, and one sack that season.
A Bears second-round pick in the 2015 draft, Goldman has appeared in 111 games with 89 starts over his career for Chicago, Atlanta, and Washington. He’s recorded 14.0 sacks with 23 tackles for loss and 25 QB hits.
Since trading Dexter Lawrence to the Bengals last month, the Giants have been on the hunt for big men to fill out the interior of their defense. The club has added Shelby Harris, Leki Fotu, DJ Reader, and Zacch Pickens since April 28.
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court declined to accept the NFL’s appeal in the case brought by Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores (and Steve Wilks and Ray Horton). The decision allows his case to proceed in court — and, in theory, to culminate with a public trial.
Both sides have issued comments in the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s ruling.
“We respect the Supreme Court’s decision not to grant review,” a league spokesperson said. “Regardless of the forum, we are fully prepared to defend ourselves as this matter proceeds.”
Said Flores’s lawyers: “We are pleased that the Supreme Court declined to accept the NFL’s appeal. The NFL must now accept that its commissioner cannot be the arbitrator over discrimination claims against the league and its teams. We look forward to litigating these claims in court.”
Obviously, the league wants the forum to be its in-house arbitration process. It keeps things secret, and it tips the scales of justice in the league’s favor.
But, no, the NFL won’t suddenly surrender. It will aggressively challenge Flores at every turn, with the goal of securing a victory without having to take the case to trial.
When will that happen? It could take months. Maybe years. After all, it took nearly 52 months to get the case past the threshold question of whether the claims will be resolved in court or in arbitration.
The NFL’s in-house arbitration process isn’t dead, but it’s on the verge of a TKO.
On Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court denied the NFL’s petition for appeal in the Brian Flores case.
From the 25-page document submitted by the league in January 2026, this is the question the NFL presented to the U.S. Supreme Court: “Whether an arbitration agreement governing disputes in a professional sports league is categorically unenforceable under the Federal Arbitration Act because it designates the league commissioner as the default arbitrator and permits the commissioner to develop arbitral procedures.”
The league wisely made the question narrow, in order to avoid the possibility that the league’s arbitration process would be taken to its logical extreme. If the NFL can make the Commissioner the default arbitrator for any employment disputes or other legal claims made by employees, every American corporation could make the CEO the default arbitrator for any employment disputes or other legal claims made against it by its employee.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit had found that the NFL’s arbitration agreement was not enforceable due to the Commissioner’s power over the process. The decision not to take the appeal doesn’t operate as an agreement by the Supreme Court; however, if the Supreme Court wanted to endorse the league’s longstanding in-house process, it could have taken up the case and then reversed the outcome.
The current legal posture doesn’t prevent the NFL from arguing its position in cases that arise in other courts. However, there’s now a clear path to suing the NFL and avoiding the mandatory arbitration clauses in non-player employment contracts by suing the NFL in New York federal court — since the Southern District of New York falls within the Second Circuit.
As to Flores, the development means that his claims against the NFL, Dolphins, Broncos, Giants, and Texans (and the claims made by Steve Wilks against the Cardinals and Ray Horton against the Titans) will be resolved by the judicial process. With full discovery. And, absent a settlement or a successful motion for summary judgment, with a trial in open court. All facts will be introduced and developed and exposed to public scrutiny.
That could spark a settlement, sooner than later. The league uses arbitration due in part to its desire to keep its business secret. Unless it goes away, the Flores case could result in all sorts of things the NFL would rather us not know playing out in the public eye.
Wide receiver Terry McLaurin likes what he’s been hearing and seeing from new Commanders offensive coordinator David Blough.
Shortly after Blough was promoted into the job this year, he said one of his plans is to get McLaurin 10 targets a week in the passing game. On Tuesday, McLaurin said that he’s heard the same from the coach and that he’s seen the team putting the words into action since they started their offseason program.
“I love that. You know, he told me that way back in February,” McLaurin said, via JP Finlay of NBC “He texted me that him and I have a really good relationship. He’s been a man of his word. My job is to prove that each and every day, when we’re having workouts to be the leader, to be someone who you can count on to be on the field and make plays. That’s all I’ve been asking for. That’s all I want. So, to win games and have a big part of that, so I was definitely smiling when I saw that come across the phone. From OTAs and stuff, I can definitely tell that’s gonna be part of it.”
McLaurin went on to say that he thinks playing a featured role will also help open up opportunities for others in the offense. There has been chatter that the team will add wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk to that group, but any alignment is going to have McLaurin in the top role as the Commanders try to bounce back this season.
