What happened to Brandon Aiyuk? How ex-All-Pro went from $120 million to on the outside looking in on NFL

It's been more than 600 days since Brandon Aiyuk last played an NFL game. The then-49ers star, just a few months removed from signing a four-year, $120 million deal, tore his ACL and MCL and suffered other knee damage when his knee hyperextended on an awkward hit in a Week 7, 2024 contest against the Chiefs.

Aiyuk's journey since has been anything but straightforward and has featured beefs with San Francisco, his now-ex agent, the NFLPA, Commanders quarterback (and former Arizona State teammate) Jayden Daniels. Aiyuk has been mostly closely tied to Washington this offseason as the team has no proven wide receivers behind Terry McLaurin.

The 49ers reported to camp for the 2026 season, and Aiyuk is once again absent. On Saturday, GM John Lynch offered an update on the situation, which only reinforced that it doesn't seem likely he'll be making his return anytime in the near future, as Aiyuk is still on the 'left squad' list, and Lynch didn't have much else to say about the receiver.

"I'm personally, and we as an organization, are going to focus on the players who are here," Lynch said. "We wish him well, we wish his family well."

Agent's Take: Brandon Aiyuk has only himself to blame for 49ers limbo chaos

Joel Corry

As Aiyuk, 28, continues to wander a very strange and unique out-of-the-NFL wilderness, here's what made him such a good player, what caused his downfall and what's next.

Aiyuk rises to stardom

The No. 25 pick in the 2020 NFL Draft, Aiyuk had an uneven start to his professional career. He caught 60 passes for 748 yards and five touchdowns as a rookie but was nearly invisible to start his second year, landing in Kyle Shanahan's doghouse.

"We know Aiyuk can be a weapon," Shanahan said in October 2021. "That's why we've got him here. I'm a big fan of Aiyuk, but he's not there yet. He's still coming along. At times, he does it at a high level. We just want him to be a little bit more consistent, and I think his time will come. It's a matter of time."

Slowly but surely, Aiyuk worked his way out of the situation; he had 43 catches for 685 yards and four touchdowns over the team's final seven games of the regular season. Ahead of his third season, Aiyuk attributed the stop-and-start nature of the beginning of his career, in part, to the strange circumstances. Drafted amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Aiyuk spent limited time with the team ahead of his rookie year and admitted he didn't realize how hard he needed to work entering his second season.

Aiyuk posted what was then his best year as a pro -- 78 catches for 1,015 yards and eight touchdowns -- in 2022 and then truly broke out in 2023: 75 catches, 1,342 yards and seven touchdowns. He earned second-team All-Pro honors. He is still the most recent player to have over 1,300 receiving yards on at least 17 yards per catch in a season. Beyond the box score numbers, ESPN rated him as the No. 1 overall pass catcher in its receiver metrics (based on "open," "catch" and "YAC" scores), and he was the No. 2 wide receiver per Pro Football Focus' grades.

The film matches all the numbers.

Aiyuk's ability to dominate over the middle of the field and win contested-catch balls on the perimeter made him a near-impossible player to guard. He looked like a dominant player on one of the NFL's best teams going forward.

Aiyuk's struggles since: trade demand, contract dispute, slow start, injury and departure

After his All-Pro 2023, Aiyuk sought a contract extension heading into the fifth-year option season of his rookie deal. The entire process, though, was shaky at best. In March, GM John Lynch talked about wanting to keep Aiyuk long-term, but Aiyuk was unimpressed, posting, essentially, "Money talks, bullshit walks" on his Instagram story. In June, Aiyuk posted a video in which he told Daniels over FaceTime the 49ers "don't want [him] back."

Aiyuk demanded a trade in mid-July and began a training camp hold-in. The 49ers even reportedly had trade frameworks in place to send him to the Patriots or Browns, but Aiyuk did not accept the terms of a potential contract either team would offer. Eventually, in late August, Aiyuk signed a four-year, $120 million extension with the 49ers. At $30 million per season, it tied the fifth-largest average annual value for a wide receiver contract at the time.

Then came a slow start -- missing all of the preseason essentially didn't help, and there was even a clash with Shanahan regarding wearing the wrong shorts to practice -- and the knee injury.

Fast forward to 2025, and Shanahan never delivered a firm timeline on Aiyuk's potential return. Then, in November, The Athletic reported the 49ers had voided the $27 million of 2026 salary guarantees owed to Aiyuk due to the wide receiver failing to meet the obligations in his contract.

In December, the 49ers put Aiyuk on the reserve/left team list. Shanahan said he hadn't seen Aiyuk "in forever" and that Aiyuk had been "extremely distant." George Kittle relayed similar sentiments. Later that month, Aiyuk posted a video of himself driving 104 mph in a 40-mph zone near the 49ers' stadium. Aiyuk later apologized. In early June 2026, the Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office issued a warrant for his arrest on a misdemeanor speeding charge.

In January 2026, Lynch said "I think it's safe to say he's played his last snap with the 49ers," regarding Aiyuk, days after the 49ers' season ended in the playoffs.

In free agency, the 49ers signed wide receivers Mike Evans and Christian Kirk. Following the NFL Draft, in which the 49ers drafted wide receiver De'Zhaun Stribling, Lynch indicated he wouldn't just let Aiyuk walk without at least trying to find a trade partner and expressed no hurry to release the disgruntled wide receiver.

"Give us a call," Lynch said. "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. The situation didn't work itself out here. That's not to say it can't be rekindled somewhere else. And we'd be happy to do something with anyone if the opportunity presented itself."

The 49ers' reluctance to release Aiyuk, though, has frustrated Aiyuk, and he aired that frustration throughout June, first calling the 49ers "little-ass boys" during one rant posted to Instagram. In another video, posted a few days later, Aiyuk called the 49ers "stupid."

"They mad 'cause they stupid," Aiyuk said. "They dumb. They mad that they paid me $50 million in eight months and then voided my guarantees for 2027. And I'm about to be on a new team in 2027. They mad at themselves for real. They acting like they mad at me, but they stupid ass mad at themselves."

Then, a few weeks later, Aiyuk posted a video repeatedly saying "Go Commanders," even while technically still on the 49ers. Aiyuk also posted, on other occasions, that his former agent (officially fired in June) helped cause the strained situation, that Lynch showed up to his house and that the NFLPA did not give him adequate support.

All the while, Aiyuk still hadn't applied for reinstatement from the reserve/left squad list; he needed to first be reinstated before he and the 49ers could technically part ways. On July 2, Aiyuk posted a video of himself dancing with the caption "Mood cuz Im gone [sic] be a Commander soon."

Of course, that couldn't possibly be true, especially because a few days later, Aiyuk posted, "I will not be reinstating with [the 49ers] nor ever doing any kind of business with them."

He has recently been calling out Daniels -- seemingly his best and most important connection with Washington -- on social media while insisting he will land with the Commanders. Aiyuk also recently attacked the NFLPA, seemingly implying that the union did not have his back in his dispute with the 49ers and attempt to engineer his way to Washington.

Before he can land anywhere, though -- or even before teams can really consider trying to land him -- he must apply for reinstatement and be reinstated. Until then, he is no closer to returning to a football field than he has been for the past several months.

Can he still play? Other notable names who missed significant time

Aiyuk would be far from the first player to miss nearly two years' worth of action and return. Just last year, Philip Rivers played for the Colts after nearly five years away, spent coaching high school football. Being a pocket passer is very different from being a wide receiver, obviously, but some wide receivers have made similar comebacks.

In terms of age and suspension length (currently), Aiyuk most closely matches Ridley, Thomas and Boston. While Ridley returned to be productive, Thomas and Boston did not, and it's worth noting that Ridley's suspension wasn't due to injury. Le'Veon Bell is also worth mentioning, though the former star running back only missed time due to a contract dispute, not an injury.

Aiyuk's recovery from the injury is crucial. How he has gone about said recovery was a major issue to the 49ers, though Aiyuk posted "they have footage and the gps information that shows I reached markers I never hit even before injury." Earlier in the summer, he posted a video of himself weighing 208 pounds; he is listed at 200 pounds on the 49ers' website, so the difference there is minimal. If he is even close to his former self, he'd be an asset for every team in the NFL. How much football training Aiyuk has done, though, and his true current form remain shrouded in mystery, fitting for this situation as a whole.