Stefon Diggs is going home. The Gaithersburg, Maryland native is signing with the Washington Commanders on a one-year deal reportedly worth more than $10 million and up to $12 million, ending a stretch of uncertainty after New England released him in a cost-saving move at the start of the league year.
He's Coming Home: Stefon Diggs To Sign With The Commanders https://t.co/AEEQyQ9IwK
It's a real football move, not just a hometown story. Diggs caught 85 passes for 1,013 yards and 4 touchdowns last season while helping the Patriots make their run to Super Bowl LX, and now he's landing in Washington to play with Jayden Daniels, arguably the most exciting young quarterback in the league. For a 32-year-old receiver looking for one more big year, that's about as good a landing spot as it gets.
But the funniest part of this signing has nothing to do with Diggs. It's about the guy who didn't get the job. Brandon Aiyuk has been stuck in a nasty stalemate with the 49ers all offseason, and Washington was widely seen as his dream landing spot — GM Adam Peters helped draft him in San Francisco, and Aiyuk has close ties to Daniels from their Arizona State days, reportedly telling people he wanted to play with him. With Diggs now filling that exact role, Barstool's accounts couldn't resist imagining Aiyuk's reaction.
A street performer dressed as Michael Jackson breaks into a dance routine in a plaza — deployed as a stand-in for Aiyuk's blank, stunned reaction to the news.
That wasn't the only take on Aiyuk's imagined meltdown making the rounds.
A grainy movie clip of two men scuffling in a crowd gets repurposed as Aiyuk's hypothetical confrontational reaction to losing his preferred destination.
None of it is actual footage of Aiyuk — just internet riffing on a receiver who's been dealing with a real standoff, having not played since tearing his ACL, MCL and meniscus back in October 2024. San Francisco voided $27 million in guaranteed money tied to his contract, and the two sides have been at an impasse for months with no obvious resolution in sight.
For Washington, the Diggs signing closes the book on that Aiyuk fantasy and gives Daniels a proven, chippy veteran target as the Commanders try to build on last season's momentum. For Aiyuk, it's one less soft landing spot on the board, and the 49ers standoff rolls on with even fewer obvious buyers than before.