While not hiding the fact that a separation is coming at some point, San Francisco 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan isn’t putting a date on wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk’s removal from the roster.
“I don’t have a date,” Shanahan said Monday at the NFL league meetings in Phoenix when asked when the 49ers might release Aiyuk. “We’re in no rush to do that.”
Aiyuk, who agreed to a four-year, $120 million contract in August 2024, had his 2026 guaranteed money voided when he stopped showing up at the facility last summer to rehab a torn ACL and MCL in his right knee sustained in Week 7 of the 2024 season.
It’s been a stunning fall from grace for Aiyuk, 28, who led San Francisco with 1,342 receiving yards and seven touchdown catches in 2023. Over five NFL seasons, the former first-round pick has amassed 294 catches for 4,305 yards and 25 touchdown catches.
“I’ve been coaching over 20 years and I’ve never been in a situation where a contract’s been voided,” Shanahan said in November. “It takes a lot of things to get a contract voided. Never dealt with that.”
San Francisco GM John Lynch said in February that Aiyuk would not be released until at least the start of the new league year on March 11.
Shanahan is hopeful the 49ers can get something in exchange for Aiyuk, who last played in a game in October of 2024.
“Eventually, it will resolve itself,” Shanahan said. “Hopefully, we get something for it.”
With Aiyuk on the way out and 2025 leading receiver Jauan Jennings also expected to depart in free agency, San Francisco signed longtime Tampa Bay wideout Mike Evans and multi-team veteran Christian Kirk to transform its receiver room.
Lynch had some parting well wishes on Monday for Jennings, a 2020 seventh-round pick who caught 210 passes for 2,581 yards and 22 scores in 75 games with the 49ers.
“He’ll find a good home, and Jauan will go play great football for someone,” Lynch said, per The Athletic. “I can’t say enough for what that guy did; when that guy stepped between the lines, man, he was a presence, and they had to deal with him, and he won us a lot of games.”
–Field Level Media
