The 49ers have reshaped their receiver room this offseason, bringing in veterans and rookies alike. It is still expected that Brandon Aiyuk will never play for San Francisco again, but he is not on the verge of free agency.
Aiyuk did not play at all in 2025, and the 49ers’ decision to void guarantees in his contract paved the way for a potential trade. Suitors are naturally more interested in acquiring the former second-team All-Pro after the 49ers release him, whereas San Francisco would prefer a trade agreement. This situation may not end any time soon, something which was further illustrated on Saturday.
During NFL Network’s draft coverage, Ian Rapoport reported (video link) a release is still expected to eventually take place in this case. He added, to no surprise, the Commanders remain a team with “significant interest” in adding Aiyuk. Washington has previously been mentioned as a logical destination; Aiyuk and quarterback Jayden Daniels were once teammates at Arizona State. Adding a veteran receiver would help boost an offense which will again have Terry McLaurin in 2026 but is without Deebo Samuel (who is unsigned at this point).
When speaking reporters following the draft, 49ers general manager John Lynch confirmed (via ESPN’s Nick Wagoner) the team’s plans do not include an Aiyuk release at this time. A trade is still San Francisco’s target. Conversations with interested teams have taken place previously, and they could pick up once more as the offseason progresses. Nevertheless, a holding pattern may be in place until a strong trade offer emerges or the September deadline approaches for the 49ers to proceed with a release before Aiyuk’s option bonus is paid out.
“We’re available. Give us a call,” Lynch said (via Wagoner’s colleague Adam Schefter) when speaking about Aiyuk on Saturday. “And like I said earlier, I think it’s the prudent thing to do. He’s an extremely talented player. He’s been an extremely effective player in our league; situation didn’t work itself out here. That’s not to say that it can’t be rekindled somewhere else. And we’d be happy to do something with anyone if the opportunity presented itself.”
It will be interesting to see if non-Commanders suitors emerge over the coming weeks with the 49ers still aiming to recoup draft capital via a trade. If not, Washington will remain a team to watch closely regarding an Aiyuk signing if/when he becomes a free agent.
I know he’s been a turd but the 49ers should be professional about this and release the guy. No one is trading for him. And I doubt he does the Commanders any good. Let him infect their roster with his bad attitude.
for the 10,000th time, why should they be professional about it when he has been throwing a temper tantrum for the last 2 years? He could have been very well a huge cog in the system last year but decided to keep his ball at home and be a whiney baby. He clocked out when his team needed him the most. They should very well hold on to him as long as they can and not give in to him and set a precedent for other teams to follow.
Remember, Brandon Ayiuk has to actually show up to mandatory camp and training camp. If he doesn’t, he goes back on the Reserve/Left Squad list and he won’t get a penny. Plus, not only will the 49ers save that cash, that cap space will be added to next years cap.
The ball is still in Ayiuk’s corner and if he wants to play football, then he needs to show up and be a man about it. If he decides to no-show again, he is ending his own career. Stop blaming the team for his immaturity.
“He wasn’t mature so the team is entitled to be immature back”
“Stop blaming the team for his immaturity”
Pick a lane my brother, either immaturity is acceptable or it isn’t, it doesn’t matter who the offending party is. The money is the most important part, and they have already taken that away, and it seems to me that was a justified and proper response to Aiyuk’s behavior. End of transaction. Perfectly reasonable from the organization to say if you don’t show up to practice and play or recover from injury, we don’t pay you millions of dollars.
Extraordinary punitive measures from the organization beyond the scope of money with the intended goal of hampering the career of someone who signed a contract with the 49ers that didn’t work out as intended, makes the organization look bad and somewhat retroactively justifies Aiyuk’s choices while also giving future free agents pause that signing in San Francisco opens them up to the possibility that the 49ers will hurt their earnings later in their career.
Just because you can put yourself in Aiyuk’s shoes and would’ve chosen to make different choices if you had his talent or signed his contract, it’s his right to do what he would like with his talent and time and money, not yours.
Stop living out your revenge fantasy and realize that as unprofessional as Aiyuk conducted himself, moving forward from this point, it only hurts the 49ers to be unprofessional back.
Millions of dollars are at stake here, there’s value in growing up and being an adult about it. Both you and Aiyuk would probably benefit from that change in approach.
This isn’t a matter of the team being immature because they have the right to hang on to him as long as they like. Those millions of dollars are a big factor and if you re-read what I said, it’s up to Aiyuk to man up and report this year. If he does not, then its more cash and cap space the Niners will save.
This isn’t immaturity, its smart business sense to let him decide if he even wants to play. If he does, he will report to the 49ers mandatory camp and training camp and then be traded or released by August 30th. If he doesn’t report, then he will fade out and be forgotten.
Yes, it is his right to do what he wants but what he chose has consequences and he is going to have to deal with those consequences. The excuse of him making millions of dollars is exactly why WR’s are the biggest divas in sports.
It’s not a revenge fantasy, its more frustration from people having no clue how this situation works and stating the obvious or in some cases, the wring information.
Why would he show up for camp? The agreement to give guarantees back was basically both sides agreeing to part ways. Aiyuk does have a base salary though and he does not need to show up to get that. Pretty sure if he is on their roster by the week 1 they owe him the money. They will be dragging their pettiness probably to the last preseason game. Pretty lame for an organization to act that way this long.
Last year he had the injury to fall back on and get paid. This year, he does not have that excuse. If he does not show up for mandatory camp and training camp, he will be put on the Reserve/Left team list on week 1 and his base salary will be forfeited. The 49ers will save cash and future cap space.
If he does show up for those camps, he will force the 49ers to release him by August 30th because his 24.9 million option bonus kicks in on September 1st.
link to youtube.com
Why should the 49ers help out Washington (a team they could compete with for a playoff spot) or any other team by letting Aiyuk walk now and have time to work in with their team. By holding onto him you see if the odd team will throw you a late round pick or at the very least you only let him go to a team on September 1st (the day they would have to release him by because his bonus is due) so he misses camp and the extra work for his new team and limits his effectiveness a bit for a potential riva. I think this action is the prudent way to go.
Can someone clarify an issue that doesn’t come up in the article–or any article I have read so far on the topic?
My understanding is that any team that trades for him has to pay his 2026-27 contract–and it is a huge amount of money. No pressure on SF because they don’t have to pay it because of his no-show status.
If he is released than any team (likely Commanders) can sign him at any price the two sides can agree upon. Presumably, his current market value is a lot less than what he would be paid under the SF contract.
But for this problem, I suspect Commanders could send over a sixth or seventh round pick and the whole timing issue goes away.
If he’s release (post June 1st probably), Aiyuk becomes a UFA. Any team can just give him a new contract and it’s up to him to accept whatever is thrown his way.
The 49ers will definitely do a release/trade after June 1st (cap reasons) but can wait as long as they want until before the final rosters are finalized (Sept) before having to pay his next year salary so there’s really no urgency for them to trade/release him before then.
All the leverage is honestly in their court since they can wait until after training camp and the preseason games to start to see if other teams shooting for the super bowl suffers any injuries at the WR position.
Although trading him would require a team to pickup the current contract (since all his guarantees were voided, he’d cost around $27M/year for another 2). Waiting until he’s released would require them to basically bid on a UFA (another team might offer him a lot more $$$. All it takes is one).
Aiyuk’s catch percentage went through the floor in 2025. I’m not sure any team wants to pay even $20+ million for a WR who catches 53% of his targets. This whole escapade has Leveon Bell written all over it.
No one will get good value out of Brandon Aiyuk going forward, not even Aiyuk himself. I hope he saved and stashed some money away and doesn’t have any bad lifestyle habits. It was sad enough to Antonio Brown end up in the gutter and then in prison. No one wants to see another star WR end up there.
Resign Deebo one year. Move on.