San Francisco 49ers general manager John Lynch didn’t mince words about wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk’s future with the team.
“It’s no exaggeration to say he played his last game with the 49ers,” Lynch said during a January 21 press conference, according to Matt Burrows of The Athletic.
Aiyuk, 27, has not played in a game since October 2024, when he injured his ACL and MCL in a Week 7 game.
The 2020 first-round pick was at the center of drama for the 49ers throughout the 2025 season. Aiyuk entered the summer on the Physically Incapacitated Player (PUP) list as he recovered from a knee injury sustained in 2024. By November, the 49ers had voided Aiyuk’s 2026 guarantee, and The Athletic’s Deanna Russini and Michael Silver reported that the wideout “failed to attend meetings and refused to participate in other team activities.”
In December, the 49ers moved Aiyuk to the reserve/left team list. A week later, the wide receiver posted a video to his YouTube account that showed himself driving at more than 90 mph through an intersection near Levi’s Stadium, home of the 49ers, in Santa Clara, California.
According to San Jose city data, the speed limit in the area where Aiyuk was driving is 25 mph.
Niners head coach Kyle Shanahan told reporters on Jan. 21 that communication with Aiyuk completely stopped at some point during the season. The receiver “stopped answering anyone’s calls, including the head coach,” Burroughs reported.
“This is something I’ve never seen in my 22 years of coaching,” Shanahan said, according to Burrows.
The 49ers voiding Aiyuk’s 2026 guarantee and Lynch’s Jan. 21 comments seem likely to cause a rift between the two teams.
At the start of the 2026 season, Aiyuk will be 28 years old and will be out of NFL action for a season and a half.
USA TODAY Sports’ Ayrton Ostly contributed to this report.
