{"id":948487,"date":"2026-07-18T02:21:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-18T02:21:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/948487\/"},"modified":"2026-07-18T02:21:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-18T02:21:13","slug":"ex-wr-says-brandon-aiyuk-commanders-is-dead-stick-a-fork-in-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/948487\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-WR says Brandon Aiyuk-Commanders is dead: ”Stick a fork in it’"},"content":{"rendered":"

July 17, 2026, 6:30 p.m. PT<\/p>\n

T.J. Houshmandzadeh isn’t wavering on where he thinks Brandon Aiyuk’s saga with the Washington Commanders ends up. And he’s even more convinced now that the disgruntled San Francisco 49ers<\/a> receiver won’t play for the Commanders, and possibly ever again in the NFL.<\/p>\n

Appearing on “Speakeasy,”<\/a> Houshmandzadeh, who has served as Aiyuk’s personal receivers coach in the past, delivered his most definitive prediction yet on the situation:<\/p>\n

“He ain’t going to the Commanders. It’s done. It’s over. Stick a fork in it. Zero. Zero-percent chance,” Houshmandzadeh said. “… And it sucks because he’s so young and he’s talented.”<\/p>\n

Asked whether Aiyuk plays in the NFL again at all, Houshmandzadeh wouldn’t rule it out completely but wasn’t optimistic.<\/p>\n

“I will probably say no,” he said. “But once this season goes by and he’s not on the team by November, he’s going to get humbled… and now he’s going to have to change if he wants to play.”<\/p>\n

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It’s not the first time Houshmandzadeh has floated the possibility that Aiyuk’s career could be over. He said as much on a separate episode of “Speakeasy”<\/a> earlier this month, telling listeners, “I would not be surprised if we never see him play football again. It would not surprise me,” while again pouring cold water on the idea Aiyuk lands in Washington.<\/p>\n

Houshmandzadeh’s read on the Commanders’ lines up with what NFL insiders have been reporting on Aiyuk’s NFL prospects<\/a>. ESPN’s Adam Schefter said on his podcast that Aiyuk’s monthslong string of social media posts targeting the 49ers \u2014 and, more recently, Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels \u2014 has cost him his presumed top landing spot. ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler offered a similar assessment on SportsCenter, saying Washington has other veteran receiver options on its radar and that Aiyuk isn’t likely to be one of them anymore.<\/p>\n

Aiyuk remains under contract with the 49ers and is on the team’s reserve\/did-not-report list. He would need to apply for reinstatement with the league before any team, including the 49ers, could release or trade him. He hasn’t played a full season since 2022 and has appeared in just three total games since tearing his ACL and MCL in October 2024.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"July 17, 2026, 6:30 p.m. PT T.J. Houshmandzadeh isn’t wavering on where he thinks Brandon Aiyuk’s saga with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":948488,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2069],"tags":[95878,427,7,6,119447,96189,96190,95882,99361,95946,97216,95892,96003,95896,95888,95895,95897,96090,95883,95881,855,111,2480],"class_list":["post-948487","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-washington-commanders","tag-accessfree","tag-commanders","tag-football","tag-nfl","tag-sourceniners-wire","tag-sstssportsnflniners","tag-sstsnniners","tag-tagamerican-football","tag-tagbrandon-aiyuk","tag-tagcalifornia-gold-rush","tag-tagcgr-sports","tag-tagespn-inc","tag-tagjayden-daniels","tag-tagnational-sports","tag-tagnfl","tag-tagnfl-hub","tag-tagoverall-negative","tag-tagsan-francisco-49ers","tag-tagsports-news","tag-typestory","tag-washington","tag-washington-commanders","tag-washingtoncommanders"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116938596921069502","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/948487","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=948487"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/948487\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/948488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=948487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=948487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=948487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}