Commanders Urged to Trade Disappointing WR Before Season

Getty Washington Commanders wide receiver Dyami Brown.

The Washington Commanders have lacked talent — and depth — at almost every position for a long time.

In 2024, the winds of change are blowing through the franchise. More talent. More depth. More hope.

If disappointing players — such as wide receiver Dyami Brown — don’t keep up their end of the bargain, they may not be around for much longer. That’s why Bleacher Report’s Ryan Fowler suggested that the Commanders should consider trading Brown in 2024.

“Away from a two-touchdown outing against the Titans in 2022, Brown has remained uninvolved in a rather underwhelming passing attack,” Fowler wrote in an August 14 story on a player from each team who “should be put on the 2024 trade block this preseason.” “While the team has consistently searched high and low for consistent production at the position away from Terry McLaurin, Brown has found himself on the outside looking in as the season approaches.

“While an uptick in production was expected for Brown last fall with Sam Howell under center, his former teammate at UNC, Brown totaled 12 catches and reached the end zone just once,” he wrote.

Dyami Brown Is Not Only Disappointment at Wide Receiver

Brown, a third-round pick (No. 82 overall) in the 2021 draft, has drastically underperformed in his time with the Commanders.

After back-to-back seasons of over 1,000 receiving yards at North Carolina in 2019 and 2020, Brown has just 29 receptions for 476 receiving yards and 3 touchdowns through his first three seasons. He’s missed only 4 games in his career but has also made only 7 starts, with 6 of those coming as a rookie in 2021.

He’s not the only early-round draft pick who the franchise has found lacking in recent years. Jahan Dotson, Washington’s first-round pick (No. 16 overall) out of Penn State in 2022, has had just over 500 receiving yards in each of his first two seasons. Those numbers seem even worse when you see Dotson had less receiving yards in 2023 than in 2022 despite playing in 5 more games.

Only McLaurin, who signed a 3-year, $68.3 million contract extension in 2022, has been a reliable option at wide receiver and has 4 consecutive seasons with at least 1,000 receiving yards.

Brown did have a respectable preseason opener in the Commanders’ 20-17 home loss to the New York Jets on August 10. He caught 2 passes on 3 targets for 55 yards, including a 44-yard bomb from quarterback Jayden Daniels on the third play of the game.

Head coach Dan Quinn said he was impressed.

“Yeah, I was excited for him to make a big play like that, and I can’t speak to the past but what I can say is from what I’ve seen here, the competing, he’s on special teams, he’s really going for it,” Quinn told reporters on August 12.

Commanders Finally Have QB, WR Options

The Commanders’ reasons for hope have a lot to do with the young talent they’re bringing in at skill positions. That group is led by rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels, the No. 2 overall pick out of LSU in the 2024 NFL draft.

Two more pass-catching options were brought into the fold in the 2024 draft that could be long-term solutions for Washington as well. The Commanders spent a second-round pick on Kansas State tight end Ben Sinnott and a third-round pick on Rice wide receiver Luke McCaffrey.

McCaffrey, already slated as one of the starting wide receivers, is the younger brother of 2023 NFL Offensive Player of the Year and San Francisco 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey and son of three-time Super Bowl champion and former NFL All-Pro wide receiver Ed McCaffrey.

Sinnott, 6-foot-4 and 247 pounds, is doing what could be a short apprenticeship under veteran tight end and three-time Pro Bowler Zach Ertz. Sinnott was also impressive in the Commanders’ preseason opener against the New York Jets with 3 receptions for 57 yards, including a rumbling, 44-yard gain.