Brandon Aiyuk and the San Francisco 49ers took a step toward resolving their prolonged dispute Friday, meeting to discuss a potential separation as the wide receiver seeks to resume his NFL career. Aiyuk said he has fully recovered from his knee injury, although financial issues remain unresolved.
Accompanied by his recently hired agent, Drew Rosenhaus, Aiyuk arrived at the team's business offices in Santa Clara for discussions that lasted about an hour and 15 minutes. Before entering, he spoke briefly to Bay Area reporters for the first time since his October 2024 injury. He described a lengthy rehabilitation and said he was back to full health and seeking reinstatement.
Aiyuk has not appeared in an NFL game since tearing the ACL, MCL and meniscus in his right knee against the Kansas City Chiefs on Oct. 20, 2024. In July 2025, San Francisco voided approximately $27 million in remaining contract guarantees after he missed rehabilitation check-ins. He subsequently stopped attending the team facility and was placed on the reserve/left-team list in December.
He also missed the offseason program and training camp. His status on the left-team list required him to apply to the NFL for reinstatement and report to San Francisco before he could return to play. Aiyuk submitted his application in late October, but the league has not yet reinstated him.
A source told ESPN that one obstacle is the 49ers' effort to recover about $13 million in bonus payments already made to Aiyuk. The league told him this week that repayment was required before reinstatement. Ahead of Friday's meeting, Rosenhaus said the goal was to address the issues preventing his client from returning to work, while declining to discuss where Aiyuk might play.
An agreement clearing the way for reinstatement would leave San Francisco with three choices: release Aiyuk, trade him or put him on the 53-man roster. A release remains the likeliest outcome. The team would prefer a trade, but it did not find a partner throughout the offseason, and the trade deadline is Tuesday.
A return to the active roster appears unlikely following general manager John Lynch's statement in January that Aiyuk had already played his final snaps for the franchise. Coach Kyle Shanahan did not attend Friday's meeting and said earlier in the day that he had no interest in a reunion.
Asked what he wanted the discussions to achieve, Shanahan said he couldn't "care less." He described the matter as having long been settled from the football team's perspective and said he had not sought details. "I look at this as zero to do with our football team," he said.
