The San Francisco 49ers opened training camp on Saturday with head coach Kyle Shanahan recovering from a serious car accident and a roster that still doesn’t include Brandon Aiyuk.
Even with Shanahan’s health dominating headlines, questions about the disgruntled wide receiver’s future still surfaced during general manager John Lynch’s press conference, and he wasn’t interested in entertaining them.
John Lynch Deflects When Asked to Clarify His Stance on Brandon Aiyuk
Lynch addressed the Aiyuk situation with a brief message, making it clear that the organization has moved on from the receiver, who remains on the reserve/left squad list and is not on San Francisco’s 90-man roster.
In a transcript shared by Washington Commanders reporter Nicki Jhabvala on X, Lynch said, “Brandon Aiyuk — I know you guys are going to have a lot of questions. Brandon is on a ‘left squad’ designation. As such, he’s not on our 90-man roster. I’m, personally, and we as an organization are going to focus on the players that are here. So, I don’t have anything to say on that, anything to add on that. We wish him well. We wish his family well.”
When asked by Matt Barrows whether the 49ers are not releasing Aiyuk just to stop him from joining an opponent’s roster, especially a team in Washington that they will face in Week 6, Lynch answered, “Matt, I understand you got to do your job. I understand. But as I said at the start, he’s on that list. That means he’s not on our roster. I’m going to focus on the guys that are and stand by what we’ve said already.”
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It is evident that Lynch has no interest in feeding a story that Aiyuk has fueled almost entirely by himself through social media over the past several months.
.@mattbarrows asked John Lynch about Aiyuk’s claim that he will eventually join the Commanders, and if that factors into the 49ers decision to keep him on the reserve/left-squad list:https://t.co/AtmE2f9nm7 pic.twitter.com/f7S4tPB4Iu
— Nicki Jhabvala (@NickiJhabvala) July 25, 2026
Aiyuk has repeatedly called out the 49ers and Lynch by name on Instagram this offseason, publicly declared he would never do business with the organization again, and proclaimed on multiple occasions that he expects to become a Commander soon.
He also publicly took some shots at Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels and his mother, which some believe were part of an inside joke.
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The 49ers, for their part, have held all the leverage. Aiyuk hasn’t filed for reinstatement from the reserve/left squad list, which means San Francisco isn’t required to release him or pay him.
The receiver signed a four-year, $120 million extension in August 2024 but hasn’t played since suffering a torn ACL and MCL in Week 7 of that season. The 49ers voided roughly $27 million in guarantees after Aiyuk failed to meet rehab obligations, and the relationship deteriorated from there.
In an ideal scenario, San Francisco would have traded Aiyuk months ago, but no team has been willing to take on the contract of a receiver who hasn’t played in nearly two years and whose social media behavior has raised red flags across the league.
If Aiyuk and the 49ers can reach an agreement on reinstatement and a subsequent release, it would pave the way for the wideout to sign elsewhere and allow the 49ers to move forward without any distractions.
