Wild Trade Proposal Flips Commanders’ Terry McLaurin for All-Pro
The Washington Commanders need quality weapons around Jayden Daniels, but trading for one of their rookie quarterback’s favorite targets, Brandon Aiyuk, isn’t worth giving up Terry McLaurin.
He’s one of the few established playmakers among Daniels’ wide receivers, but McLaurin could be trade bait for acquiring Aiyuk from the San Francisco 49ers. That’s the outlandish proposal put forward by Ben Standig and David Lombardi of The Athletic.
They have the Commanders sending McLaurin to the Bay Area and getting Aiyuk and a “compensatory third-round pick” in return. Those are decent terms, but perhaps not good enough to justify parting ways with McLaurin, who has been a model of consistency by posting four 1,000-yard seasons out of five in Washington.
Standig acknowledged McLaurin is “wildly popular, productive (and likely untradable).” However, Standig doesn’t think the Commanders would be able to do a deal for Aiyuk and afford to keep both premium receivers on the roster: “Making Aiyuk one of the five highest-paid receivers will lead to McLaurin’s camp wanting a raise next year when the contract no longer includes guaranteed money. At 29, McLaurin is roughly two and a half years older than Aiyuk.”
Despite Aiyuk’s strong history with Daniels, the latter’s arrival of FedEx Field makes this the wrong time entirely to move on from a proven commodity like McLaurin.