The 49ers placed Brandon Aiyuk on the reserve/left squad list on Saturday, ending the receiver’s 2025 season before it could ever get off the ground.
Aiyuk has been recovering from a torn ACL suffered midway through last season. But head coach Kyle Shanahan told reporters after the 49ers’ Sunday victory over the Titans that Aiyuk had separated himself from the club.
“I mean, haven’t seen him in forever,” Shanahan said. “That’s the decision they make. It’s been pretty simple for me. I haven’t seen him in a month, and same with our team. So, that hasn’t been an issue with our team at all. We’ve kind of been plugging away, and no big deal — or it’s just something we’ve been used to for a while.
“I know it’s new to you guys, so, just officially had to do that yesterday.”
Shanahan noted that as far as he knows, no one has been in touch with Aiyuk.
But Shanahan stopped short of saying that Aiyuk won’t be with the team in the future.
“I mean, I wouldn’t say that’s for sure been decided,” Shanahan said. “I literally haven’t had to think about BA or had a reason to think about him in a long time. He is under contract next year. BA’s a guy, we’ve had a relationship for a while. We’ve always liked BA. Everyone knows how good of a player he is.
“It’s extremely unfortunate that it’s gotten to this point. But when this year’s over, we’ll see where we’re at.”
As for the 49ers’ receivers for the rest of 2025, Shanahan noted it’s not like the club was really planning to have Aiyuk on the field.
“We’ve been playing with our receivers group all year,” Shanahan said. “I really have been hoping he would come back all year, but not at one point was I really planning on it. So, that would’ve been a great bonus. That would’ve been awesome. Would love to have BA out there, would love to have that type of player.
“But it’s something I realized early on — it wasn’t going to come for a while. And there was nothing that made me sit there and make me think it was happening soon. So, I think the rest of our team [felt that way] also.”
Aiyuk, 27, was a 49ers first-round pick in 2020. He’s appeared in 69 games with 67 starts for San Francisco, catching 294 passes for 4,305 yards with 25 touchdowns in his career.
