Brandon Aiyuk is burning every bridge with the San Francisco 49ers in an attempt to force his way to the Washington Commanders. He hasn’t caught an NFL pass since October 2024 due to his torn ACL and MCL, and he just joined an unfortunate club: the biggest what-ifs in recent NFL history.
Not long ago, Aiyuk was a young star who totaled 2,357 and 15 touchdowns from 2022 to 2023 and seemed poised for a promising NFL career. Now, between his injuries and social-media antics, his future is up in the air.
On “The Hot List,” PFN’s Ian Cummings ran through the biggest receiver-related what-ifs in recent NFL history, with Aiyuk coming in at No. 5.
Has Brandon Aiyuk Played His Final NFL Game?
Cummings posed the what-if for Aiyuk: “What if Brandon Aiyuk never tore his ACL and MCL?”
Aiyuk earned second-team All-Pro honors in 2023 after he caught 75 passes for 1,342 yards (seventh-most in the league), and he had back-to-back 1,000-yard seasons. San Francisco rewarded him with a four-year, $120 million extension in August 2024. Two months later, he tore the ACL and MCL in his right knee, and he hasn’t played since.
The 49ers voided roughly $27 million in 2026 guarantees last July after he stopped attending mandatory rehab sessions and communicating with the franchise, and general manager John Lynch said in January that Aiyuk had “played his last snap” for the team.
PFN’s WR Impact metric graded Aiyuk as the fourth-best wideout in the NFL in 2023. Now, at only 28 years old, he could be out of the league for good.
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“With the amount that Aiyuk has damaged his reputation in the eyes of the league, and with the amount of uncertainty that there is with him coming back from such a major injury, there is a very real possibility that Ayuk never plays a down of football again, and many teams are going to be apprehensive towards signing him,” Cummings said.
Why Calvin Johnson Still Belongs at No. 1
After Aiyuk, Cummings talks about Odell Beckham Jr., Justin Blackmon, Josh Gordon, and at No. 1: Calvin Johnson. They all made the list for different reasons; some failed to stay healthy, while others couldn’t stay clean.
As for Johnson, what if he didn’t retire at 30 years old?
Johnson walked away after the 2015 NFL season, healthy and still capable of dominating. The single-season receiving record he set in 2012 of 1,964 yards still stands today (even with the NFL moving to a 17-game season). In his final NFL season, Johnson totaled 88 receptions for 1,214 yards and 9 touchdowns. He walked away during his prime, causing many to wonder what would’ve happened if he kept playing.
“If you fired up Madden and you created a player, made them all 99s, turned up the size sliders all the way, this was the player that got churned out,” Cummings said of Johnson.
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He finished fourth in receiving yards through any player’s first nine seasons and then simply decided he’d had enough. Where would he rank all-time if he had kept playing?
“No one can fault him for retiring and preserving his health,” Cummings said. “That is the best decision that you can make for yourself in football; we know it is a brutal physical game. But it’s simply fascinating fantasizing about what could have been. Calvin Johnson, had he stayed in the league, there is a very realistic outcome where he at least enters the top-five all-time in receiving yards, or maybe even gets close to Jerry Rice’s record.
“We’ll never know, but all we do know is that we could still look back fondly on Calvin Johnson in his prime and say he was arguably the most dominant receiver, the most frightening receiver for defensive backs to line up against of all time.”
Aiyuk can potentially still rewrite his ending, but with each passing day (and social-media post), it becomes less and less likely that he’ll get another chance to suit up in the NFL.
As for the rest, we can only wonder what could’ve been.
