Donte Whitner breaks down Brandon Aiyuk as a player & if the Commanders should sign him

Life can feel overwhelming, but all my podcasts from the heart with Rachel Brayton were in it together.

Every Friday a new episode brings you a new story with topics on motherhood, wellness,

self-love, and more. Listen to From the Heart with Rachel Brayton wherever you get your podcasts.

Joining me right now to talk about Brandon Iyuk and maybe even the safety that Washington

added earlier today is Dante Whitner. Dante played for Washington. In 2016 he was a first-round

pick all the way back in 2006 played the bulk of his career in Buffalo and San Francisco,

but at the very end of his career that 2016 team, which was a really good team offensively,

Dante started nine games and played in a lot of the games defensively for Washington. It's

safety down the stretch. By the way, Dante, I had Kirk Cousins on the show a couple of weeks ago

and we talked about that season. That was a really good offensive team with a ton of weapons.

I mean Dishon, Pierre, Jordan Reed. That was a good offensive football team. I'm sorry.

Crowder. Jameson Crowder. Yeah. Williams. Trent Williams. Yeah. It was a good team. Do you

remember how that season ended? I do. We didn't have any consistency on defense.

And before I even arrived in Washington, I had a familiarity with Perry Fuel to defensive

coordinator. Yeah. And early in my career, I learned a lot from Troy Vincent being in the same

locker room learning under Perry Fuel and then I realized that Perry Fuel didn't understand

defense. He lost a few games for us with just normal calls that I later understood once I got

to San Francisco. So for example, in Buffalo, we were playing the Dallas Cowboys and we were up

three touchdowns early in that game. Tony Romo and the boys started to come back at the end of

the game. We're up by, you know, I think I touched down and he calls a cover too when all he had to

do was call a sideline. First of all, in the middle of Fuel, somebody get tackled. They get it out

of bounds. They kick a long field goal or something and tie the game and beat us in overtime.

So I had a familiarity with him. And then when I got to Washington did much change. Everything

was very basic. Well, well, Joe Barry, Joe Barry was actually the defensive coordinator.

Perry Fuel was the diabetes coach. Yeah, but you would take a lot of insight from Perry Fuel.

Huh, interesting. So somebody has a label, but then it's a team effort behind the scene.

Yeah. But when I was going to say about that last game of the season,

all we had to do, and I say we because I'm a redskins fan, all we had to do was beat the

giants who were playing for nothing to get to the postseason and we lost that game at home.

And that was, that was sort of the beginning of the end of that group that they had together,

which was very good offensively, but to your point, really was a team that struggled defensively.

But anyway, Dante's not on to talk about the past. He's on to talk about the future. He and Patrick

Willis certainly one of the best inside linebackers of all time. They do a podcast together called

the grit code podcast. You can get it wherever you get your podcasts. So I want to talk about

Brandon Ayuk and the very likely possibility that he's going to be available and that Washington

might be interested before we get to what kind of player you think he might be if he ends up playing

in Washington. Dante, tell us from your perspective, what the hell happened here over the last

year in San Francisco? There was a lot of immaturity, a lot of ego, and when you're dealing with a guy

like Brandon Ayuk, you have to think that behind the scenes, someone told him something and didn't

actually follow through on it or something of that nature. You know, so and then I think a lot of

it is, you know, the power of, once you sign those major contracts, a lot of people out there

don't understand the power of feeling like you can do whatever, whenever and however you want to.

So it was about a combination of those things, but I think all in all, Brandon Ayuk is still in his

prime and whoever gets Brandon Ayuk is going to get a motivated guy who feels like there's a lot

of people against them and he has to prove himself all over again. Do you think Washington's the

landing place for him? I think it should be. I think that right now with him not trusting organizations,

with him not trusting a lot of his teammates, I think when you have a deproved relationship with

a quarterback like Jaden Daniels, I think that that's the most opportune situation for Brandon Ayuk.

And he already has trust coming in the door because it's not that, you know, everybody has to

earn his trust. He feels like, you know, who can I trust? So I think Jaden Daniels getting

in that offense and being out there with McLaren, I think that that will be a dynamic duo that,

you know, a lot of defense would have to stay up nice and try to stop.

What do you think Brandon Ayuk is is a healthy motivated player? Where is he on the list of

really good receivers in the NFL? He's a top 10 receiver in NFL,

top 10 receiver when he's 100% healthy, locked in and he's on top of his game. He's a top 10

Y receiver and I believe that he's going to come back extremely healthy. He missed more than

an entire year. He's had to hear the noise and I think he's going to come back extremely

motivated. So if Washington can get him, they're going to get one of the best Y receivers in the

national football league. What makes him a top 10 receiver in your mind?

Has the ability to be able to separate at the top of the row? Make every row look the same.

The ability to track the ball, the ability to run intermediate routes over the middle routes,

yards up to the catch, the deep ball, the way that he tracks the football and he's

extra motivated on game day. There's a lot of guys that's motivated throughout practice and

all season. There's a different switch that you have to flick in the regular season and then

even more so in the playoffs and Brendan and I use whenever the moment is biggest, he comes

through with some of the biggest plays and I've seen it for the last five years. He's still in

his prime and I guarantee you that they're going to get a dynamic player. Does he block well enough

as a wide receiver? I mean, Juan Jennings has been there as one of the true elite blocking wide

receivers in the game during his career. What is Brandon Iyuk as a blocker?

Well, I don't think you can play for Kyle Shanahan and I'll run first offense if you're not a good

blocker and there's been many times on different highlights from Christian McCaffrey and George

Kiddell and anybody that catches the ball, give him both Samuel or you'll see Brandon Iyuk

giving extra effort, helmet almost falling off down the field. So I don't think that you have

to question his blocking ability when you come from a Kyle Shanahan offense.

Good stuff on Brandon Iyuk. One more on him and I do want to ask you about Juan Jennings,

but what would be your biggest concern? I would assume, I don't know if you would assume the same,

that this is going to be a highly incentivized deal. There's not going to be a whole hell of a lot

of guaranteed money. This is going to be, it's probably going to have to be a prove it contract.

First of all, do you agree with that? I do agree with that when you leave an organization like

the San Francisco 49ers and you get everything that you wanted and a contract and then you go through

an unfortunate situation where you get an injury. I think the number one thing with Brandon Iyuk

is not going to be on the field, it's not going to be in the locker room, it's going to be his

emotional intelligence and growth because we've seen a lot of immaturity and there's no football

player that I've known that I've played with that would have handled the situation like Brandon

Iyuk did. Especially when you already have the contract that you want, all you really have to do

is show up, go to meetings, go to rehab, get yourself back and peak conditioning. I don't know

anybody that would have handled it like this. So it might be a slight bit of some type of mental

illness is well there. So I say this all the time, guys should get therapy. We deal with a lot,

especially the current players and hopefully a Brandon Iyuk can grow and erase a lot of

immaturity and increase his emotional intelligence. There's no reason why he can't be a top five

while receiving an NFL. You know, that is some really good stuff and very thoughtful and I'm curious

as to what you would be looking for. What you would be asking is let's just say if you know,

play GM for a moment or play somebody in the front office of an organization that's exploring

the idea of signing Brandon Iyuk. What would be the questions you would ask him? What would you need

to know about that maturity level and that emotional quotient, that part of it and whether or not

there's some therapy that would be necessary and would he be willing to see that? You know,

I'm just throwing it out there. I have no idea if that's what his issues are at all, but you

you mentioned them. What would you ask him? What would you need to know before signing him?

Well, first and foremost, I would need to know the entirety of the story because we know it's

always three sides to a story. Secondly, his side, her side and the truth usually is somewhere

in between. And then I would need to know if he's willing to take accountability for how it all

played out and that's a deep conversation and then I would know what are you doing to regulate

yourself and make sure that this doesn't happen again and a lot of times you know what that is,

that's therapy. That's something that makes you uncomfortable where you have to tell a third

party your inner most feelings and figure out the type of trauma that made you react and act

out in this situation and then I would need to know and I need to see it each and every day.

I need you to show up before everybody else. I need you to stay in the film room. I need you to stay

in the gym. I need you to stay in the weight room. I need you to be a leader not just with your

voice but with your actions and that's each and every day and then it would be heavy stipulations

in the contract. Right? Any type of not showing up, any type of you know a pin drop we're finding you

and you put it in center base. Right now I think the going rate right now will probably be one year,

15 million with the chance to earn five or six million based on incentives based on play yards

and came success. So that's what I would do for Brandon IU. The rest of it I don't know if it's

tangible enough to even gauge. What's up little psychos. I'm investigator slater host of the

Psychopedia podcast. Psychopedia is a true crime podcast delivering raw, real and absolutely

gripping episodes every single week. I dig deep to uncover fascinating details of heinous true

crime cases while exploring criminology and psychology theories. I take you into the absolute darkest

corners of the human psyche, my favorite territory and present cases like you've never heard them before.

Follow and listen to psychopedia everywhere you get your podcasts. You know you said something in

that answer that I think for me and just thinking about it just as an observer of the human condition

for you know lots of different people and lots of different parts of life that it's that taking

of accountability. You mentioned that very early in your answer. If he didn't take accountability

for his actions and you knew the story enough to know that there was an area there was room for him

to take accountability. Would that be too big of a red flag for you to overcome? That would be a very

rare flag of very rare flag because remember just because he signed on to the Washington

commanders doesn't mean that they're going to have success and doesn't mean that he's going to

get back to the way that he's accustomed to playing. For those things don't go as you expect them,

how are you going to react? Are we going to have to deal with the San Francisco 49ers branding

IU or in those tough moments? Are you going to show the growth maturity and emotional intelligence

that we need to get this thing back and correct it? So that would be a huge rare flag.

Just taking accountability is primary before you want to fix any type of bad habit and mistake

anything that you've done in life. So he has to take accountability first and foremost

and then I think that he can go into play some football. Yes. Obviously we haven't even mentioned

the medical. He's obviously got to clear the medical and be healthy physically off of the ACL

injury before you even move forward with that. But that's really, really thoughtful and good stuff

on IU. So let me ask you about Joanne Jennings. He's been one of my favorites in free agency and I've

wanted Washington to sign him. I thought that you know and still think he'd be a great fit here.

They're going to change Dante the offense David blouse the new offensive coordinator.

It's going to be more of a Ben Johnson slash Kevin O'Connell. Those were his two influences

before Cliff Kingsbury the last two years. So they're going to be under center more. They're

going to run the ball more, marry the run to the play action game more. And to me, Joanne's

perfect for that style of offense. What do you think of him as a player in a fit for Washington?

What are certain players that I like more in certain offenses?

And Joanne Jennings is a player that I like more in a college shenanigans offense where he'll

strategically get you on myth matches to exploit the weakness of the defense and it really

doesn't matter who it is. When I think about Joanne Jennings, his number one characteristic is

effort and number two is toughness. And then he does have some speed and quickness,

but I don't see him as one of those guys. You can just align it to X or Z and go out there and

win consistently. So I think that's probably why the 49ers pass and allowed him to go out and test

the market. I'm not saying that his market is closed for San Francisco. I'm just saying that they

allowed him to go out and test his true market because I probably am correct about how front

offices and particularly general managers are viewing him, especially when you turn on the film.

When you have a run first offense with Christian McCabe free play action and all of those

different gimmicks, it's different than being able to just line up and beat somebody over and

over and over. Just real quickly and you may not have an opinion on these players, but Washington

just signed Nick Cross safety from Indianapolis. Do you have any thoughts on that signing and on Nick

Cross as a player? Why can't speak intelligently about him and that will be unfair. So because I

haven't really seen that much. Yeah, no worries. So yeah, it will be unfair for me to speak on him.

Okay. Then the last one I have for you is just my favorite signing so far in free agency just

across the league or certainly near the top of the list is Mike Evans to San Francisco. A

receiver like Brandon Ayuk was in 2023 that is going to really, you know, insist that a defense

focus a lot of attention and I think it just ends up making it so much easier from from McCaffrey

and for whenever kiddle comes back. What do you think of the Evans edition?

One thing perception is and on paper, they should dominate the league. When you have an all pro

Mike Evans who's dominated the league for 11 consecutive years, probably 12. If he didn't get

introduced here, George Kittle, ever since he's been the league, Christian Caffrey the same.

You have an up-and-coming Ricky Purcell who's going to enter the season healthy and a broad

party who's at the top of his game. So I would think perception wise people would think like,

oh man, they're going to all click. They're all going to shred the league and if they do,

the 49ers, they deserve to be super bowl favorites. But then when I think in reality and I know

how I felt at about 30, 31, 32 years old and when I think about father time, father time, he doesn't

send a notice. Father time just sneaks up on you and just snatches your talent like the repo man.

So when you think about the ages of these players, Trent Williams is going to be 38.

You have Mike Evans is going to be 33 coming off consecutive years of having like big injuries.

You have George Kittle who's going to be 33. He's coming off in Achilles injury. Christian

McCaffrey has been known to be injury prone before this past season. I'm thinking it's the oldest

offense in the national football league and it can either be really, really, really good or it can

be really, really, really bad and we will find out. But I'm not too sure about it right now being

that they didn't really go out and get the youth that I thought they needed.

You know what was interesting about the 49ers season is that Washington was decimated by injuries

this year. I mean, their quarterback essentially only played in four games start to finish.

That's usually doomed for any team, especially when the quarterbacks are really good one.

And they were, you know, they lost their wide percent. Well, that's what I'm getting to here

in a moment. More times than not when you suffer the kind of injury season that Washington had

this year, you're in big trouble because it wasn't just their quarterback. Their best players were

lost for portions if not the entire season. And all season long, I would take calls from people

would say, well, what about the 49ers, Kevin? The 49ers have had all these injuries and here they

are, you know, 12 and five. And I did say during the course of the season, first of all, they still

have a lot of really good players on the field. Number one, number two is they really didn't have

the roughest of schedules. They were beaten some pretty fair to less than fair teams. And when

they got up against Seattle in that season finale, that score was really not even reflective of

how one sided that game was. And then the playoff game was obviously a route as well. And by the way,

two 49ers, you know, Super Bowl runner-up teams, the following years they got injured a lot

and didn't play well. So I don't know where this is leading other than for me to ask you,

why do you think the 49ers of 2025 were somewhat of the aberration in which they were a very injured

team, but they won 12 games and went to the postseason? Well, first and foremost, I agree with you,

they did have a easier schedule this year. They did have an easier schedule, you're saying they did.

You're saying they did. Yeah, right. Yeah, they did. They did. They had a easier schedule.

Secondly, they didn't have majority of their major players with major injuries all at the same time.

Then the back-up quarterback situation. When Brock Purdy went out, Mac Jones, who had

experienced starting in the National Football League, Kyle Shanahan was able to strategically

pretty much overfeed Christian McCaffrey in the underneath game, running the football,

and the defense was Ben Bedone break. That's how he did it. So it wasn't anything like magical.

It was just having a back-up quarterback that's competent. It doesn't turn the football over.

It takes the field with confidence and believes that they're a starter in the league, so

which is why Mac Jones and his value has skyrocketed.

I really enjoyed this. Thank you so much. The insight on IUQ was great. Thanks, Dante.

Oh, thank you. You have a good one.

Dante Whitner, everybody, from the grit and code podcast with Hall of Fame linebacker,

Patrick Willis, interesting stuff on IUQ. IUQ is going to more likely than not get released.

The 49ers could still hold on to him for a while and try to trade him. We'll see what happens there.

But man, all indications are that if he does get released, the destination is here.

How do we feel about that? 301-230-0980-301-230-0980? Do you want IUQ on a prove it deal?

Dante Whitner said, at one year, 15 million, the rest in incentives, I don't think he's getting that much

in guaranteed money. I think something less than 10 in everything else is incentives with lots of

outs, easy outs for the team if things go sideways. Yes or no on Brandon IUQ 301-230-0980. When we

come back, you're going to hear what another NFL former receiver and his personal coach said about

IUQ. That's next.

Follow and listen to them off wherever you get your podcasts.