ASHBURN, Va. — It is June. Terry McLaurin is practicing with the Washington Commanders. Everyone in and around the team is thrilled with his form and this development, because it’s such a departure from a year ago and because it sets such a tone in the rest of the receiver room. Smiles all around.And yet it says here that the most pertinent question around a franchise approaching a pivotal season isn’t about McLaurin. It’s about what’s around him. Namely: Is there enough talent at receiver to help put behind a disappointing 2025 and return to the playoffs in 2026?“First thing I see is just a really competitive group,” coach Dan Quinn said.That’s great. First thing I see is a group in which no player other than McLaurin caught more than 29 passes for 350 yards a year ago. That was veteran Van Jefferson, who put forth that modest effort for the Tennessee Titans. The other veterans on hand at Commanders OTAs caught 20, 16, 11, 10 and one balls for 227, 225, 203, 130 and 25 yards, respectively.Again, is that enough?“It’s the NFL,” McLaurin said. “Somebody always steps up.”Somebody needs to.Quick quiz: Can you match the numbers of catches and yards to the players the Commanders have in the building during offseason workouts? Answers to come. Obsessive Commanders fans need only apply.Look, rosters aren’t solidified in June. The lack of production from last season doesn’t account for the fact that the team took wideout Antonio Williams from Clemson in the third round of April’s draft. Chig Okonkwo, a free-agent signee, gives quarterback Jayden Daniels a more dynamic element at tight end. And so much of the Commanders’ offensive potential hangs on Daniels’ health, which could easily be identified as the most important element for 2026.But there’s a reason why the names Brandon Aiyuk and Stefon Diggs still hang over the offseason. It’s because — and here’s your quiz answer — Dyami Brown, Jaylin Lane, Luke McCaffrey, Treylon Burks and Jacoby Jones don’t collectively scream, “We’re fine here.”“We believe in their abilities,” McLaurin said. “Now it’s about them going out there and showing it. And I encourage them all, ‘You gotta treat that like it’s your spot. You’re not trying to give it up. Every rep you get, you got to make the most of it.’”Player development is an essential part of professional sports. Quinn and new offensive coordinator David Blough could indeed get more out of, say, McCaffrey, who played only nine games in 2025 because of injury. Burks is a 2022 first-round pick. Lane is entering just his second season. Brown is only a season removed from being an impact player during the Commanders’ run to the NFC Championship Game. Improvement is both expected and demanded.But until Aiyuk either returns to the San Francisco 49ers (which isn’t happening) or is cut, and Diggs, who helped the New England Patriots to an AFC championship a year ago, signs with another team, Commanders fans have the right to wonder: Why not kick the tires?Start with Aiyuk, because his is simultaneously the more logical and perplexing case.He is connected to the Commanders because he played with Daniels at Arizona State. He is connected with the Commanders because general manager Adam Peters was with the 49ers when they drafted him in 2020 and when he had 1,342 receiving yards in 2023. But he hasn’t played a snap since shredding his knee seven games into the 2024 season. And because he cut off communication with the 49ers during his rehab, it’s fair to ask: What’s going on?“I don’t have a sense on it,” Daniels said last week. “That is my brother. We have a personal relationship. But his football future is out of my control.”Aiyuk follows all of five accounts on Instagram — including a shoe company, his wife, the Commanders and Daniels.But don’t assume Aiyuk will be a Commander if and when the 49ers cut him. There are just too many unknowns — and that was even before a warrant was issued in California for Aiyuk’s arrest on Wednesday on a misdemeanor charge of “exhibition of speed.”The first and most significant: Aiyuk’s mental state and his intentions with his career. If he really wants out of San Francisco — and it’s apparent that he does — then all he has to do is show up for one of the 49ers’ offseason workouts. Step on the field, and there are people who believe the Niners would cut him instantly because they don’t want to be responsible for paying him in 2026 should he get hurt in the offseason.Secondly, it’s reasonable to wonder — given the severity of Aiyuk’s injury — how effective he could be as a receiver at 28 with a rebuilt knee. Given the questions about his body and mind, Aiyuk needs to be with a team during the offseason, showing his physical form and his commitment. Yet every day he’s still on the 49ers’ roster is a day he’s not with his new team, be it the Commanders or someone else, learning and fitting into a new system. That can’t help.Diggs’ ties to Washington aren’t to the quarterback or the front office, but to the city itself. He grew up in nearby Montgomery County, Md., and played college ball at Maryland. A free agent, he caught 85 balls for 1,013 yards in 2025, a season in which he turned 32. He may be on the back end of his career, but that career has featured seven 1,000-yard seasons in the last eight years. He can still play.Would signing Diggs make the Commanders’ receiving corps a strength? No. Would it take some heat off a group of pass catchers that currently doesn’t have its top two players in receptions from a year ago, Deebo Samuel and Zach Ertz? Yes. Those 122 catches come from somewhere.Maybe that’s from the group on hand.“There’s still roles in how we’d work, and some experimenting, for sure, that needs to take place now and into camp as well,” Quinn said.The experimenting, for the moment, is with a bunch of guys who collectively warrant a shrug of the shoulders. The recommendation here would be: Stay away from Aiyuk, but take a shot at Diggs. McLaurin may be back and healthy and prepared to play in 17 games for the fifth time in the past six seasons. Even if he does, he needs help — the kind of help that hasn’t yet arrived in Ashburn.