SANTA CLARA, Calif. — While there are still obstacles to work through, the San Francisco 49ers and wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk are finally headed toward a resolution to their tumultuous relationship.
Aiyuk, flanked by agent Drew Rosenhaus, arrived at the Niners’ business offices Friday afternoon to meet with the team and begin hammering out a path toward a divorce that has been more than two years in the making.
In his first public comments to Bay Area media since his knee injury in October 2024, Aiyuk offered a brief statement before he and Rosenhaus headed into the meeting.
“I’m feeling great, feeling healthy,” Aiyuk said. “It was a long recovery process, a long rehab process, but I’m back to 100% and looking to get reinstated to the National Football League.”
Aiyuk, who tore the ACL, MCL and meniscus in his right knee against the Kansas City Chiefs on Oct. 20, 2024, hasn’t played in an NFL game since. After the Niners voided the roughly $27 million in remaining guarantees in his contract in July 2025 because he didn’t show up for rehab check-ins on the knee, he stopped showing up at the team facility and landed on the reserve/left-team list in December.
From there, Aiyuk did not report for any of the offseason program or training camp. Because he is on the left-team list, the only way for Aiyuk to return to play was to apply for reinstatement with the NFL and report to the 49ers.
Aiyuk recently hired Rosenhaus to represent him, and the pair filed for reinstatement in late October. But that hasn’t happened yet, in part because the 49ers have been seeking repayment of about $13 million in bonus money that was previously paid to Aiyuk, a source told ESPN. The league informed Aiyuk this week that he needs to repay that bonus money before reinstatement.
Rosenhaus indicated before Friday afternoon’s meeting that the hope was to resolve the necessary issues in order for Aiyuk to play again.
“Obviously, Brandon is here to meet with the team,” Rosenhaus said. “Fortunately, he’s feeling good physically. He’s healthy. He’s ready to get back to work. We don’t really have any comment about where he’s going to play. We’ll keep that between us and the Niners, but obviously we are here with the right intentions.”
If the 49ers and Aiyuk work out a satisfactory agreement that allows for reinstatement, the team would then have three options. They could release Aiyuk, which remains the most likely scenario. They could trade him, which remains the 49ers’ preference, though they have been unable to find a trade partner for him throughout the offseason and the deadline is on Tuesday.
Or they could add him to the 53-man roster, something that has seemed like a long shot since general manager John Lynch said in January that Aiyuk played his last snaps for the team.
Coach Kyle Shanahan did not participate in Friday’s meeting and made it clear in his news conference earlier in the day that he does not have any interest in a reunion with Aiyuk or in the meeting.
Asked what he would like to see happen in the meeting, Shanahan said he couldn’t “care less.”
“It’s been over for our football team for a long time,” Shanahan said. “So, I don’t hear much except questions about him today.
“I think it’s complicated. I haven’t asked one question. I look at this as zero to do with our football team. Anything that has zero to do with our football team, especially during the season, I will give zero thoughts to.”
