[Breaking] 49ers & Brandon Aiyuk Appears to be Heading for Divorce
New reports suggest that the relationship between the 49ers and WR Brandon Aiyuk has not improved over his season spent rehabbing his injury.
Late Saturday night, San Francisco 49ers fans were hit with a bombshell about wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk. Dianna Russini from the Athletic reported that the 49ers and Aiyuk are likely heading towards a “divorce” at the end of the 2025 season. Aiyuk signed a four-year, $120 million contract back in August 2024, and then tore his ACL and MCL later in October. While initially it appeared he should be on pace to return during the season, he has yet to practice heading into late November, and as Russini mentioned, the relationship hasn’t seemed to improve since his hold-in last season.
Russini has heard from her sources that Aiyuk has not been attending team meetings and activities, which has left a sour taste in the 49ers’ mouths and has proven to be a distraction. Several players have attempted to contact Aiyuk, but have received no response. There have been more reports that the 49ers would have traded him if he were healthy, and that they had been shopping Aiyuk early in the off-season, linked to the Cleveland Browns and New England Patriots.
This has resulted in the 49ers voiding his guarantees on his new deal out of failure to uphold his end of the contract. This makes it easy to move off of Aiyuk next off-season be it by trade or release. The six-year veteran will turn 28 next Spring, and had 1,300 yards in his last fully healthy season. A market will certainly materialize for the former All-Pro, but teams may be willing to wait for him to be cut rather than trading draft capital for him on his current deal.
Aiyuk also didn’t fight his voided guarantees, turning down help from the NFLPA to do so. This is a bold bet on his end, as he’s unlikely to earn most of that money back anytime soon after missing significant time with a serious injury. He will however get his wish and be moved to another team, with a chance to earn another contract in the future.
I would expect the 49ers to draft a wide receiver in the early rounds of the 2026 NFL class to replace Aiyuk’s skill set, even though Ricky Pearsall has been seen as the new number one receiver in the offense. As the 49ers’ season progresses, we should suspect that there will be more to this Aiyuk story.