San Francisco general manager John Lynch does not expect embattled wideout Brandon Aiyuk to return to the 49ers, declaring Wednesday that “it’s safe to say that he’s played his last snap with the Niners.”
Aiyuk, 27, missed the entire 2025 season after tearing his ACL and MCL in October of 2024.
He was initially expected to return this October but by November, The Athletic reported he had missed multiple team meetings and displayed a “lack of communication” that led the 49ers to void the guaranteed money in Aiyuk’s 2026 contract, calling his absences a failure to fulfill his contractual obligations.
Aiyuk signed a four-year, $120 million deal before the 2024 season. By voiding future guarantees, San Francisco can recover a 2026 option bonus of $24.935 million, $1.215 million in base salary for 2026, a $100,000 workout bonus and roster bonuses of $750,000 per game, according to The Athletic.
“The plan in terms of the transaction that will come in due time,” Lynch said at his season-ending press conference on Wednesday, four days after the 49ers were dismantled 41-6 by the Seattle Seahawks in the divisional round of the playoffs.
San Francisco would incur a dead-cap hit of $29.6 million if Aiyuk were either traded or released, with that money spread over two seasons if he were designated as a post-June 1 release.
“It’s unfortunate. You know, a situation that just went awry,” Lynch said. “I will look long and hard at what could have been done differently but sometimes it just doesn’t work out, and I think that this was a case where that happened.”
Aiyuk posted 25 receptions for 374 yards and no touchdowns over seven games in 2024 after developing into a star over the previous two campaigns.
He caught a career-high 78 passes for 1,015 yards and a career-best eight TDs in 2022, and hauled in 75 catches for a career-high 1,342 yards in 2023.
Drafted in the first round (25th overall) in 2020, Aiyuk has 294 receptions for 4,305 yards and 25 TDs in 69 games (67 starts) with the 49ers.
