As the San Francisco 49ers take the field for their Week 12 matchup against the Carolina Panthers, they won't have wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk once again.
Aiyuk suffered a torn ACL and MCL last October that has kept him sidelined ever since. Aiyuk remains on the physically unable to perform list, where he has been dating back to the offseason.
The expectation was that Aiyuk would be back at some point this season, but there is now doubt that he will ever suit up for the 49ers again.
Here's all the details.
Will Brandon Aiyuk play in 2025?
Aiyuk's status remains up in the air, but it isn't looking good for him.
A report from The Athletic's Mike Silver and Dianna Russini revealed that the two sides may part ways in 2026 and Aiyuk might have played his last game with the Niners.
Silver and Russini add that the Niners voided guarantees in Aiyuk's contract because he missed team meetings and activities in recent months.
49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan confirmed that Aiyuk did have his guarantees voided, something he said he has never experienced as a coach.
"It takes a lot of things to get a contract voided," Shanahan said. "I've never dealt with that in my career and been in any building that's had that. It was unusual. But that's stuff that I can't get into right now."
Shanahan did push back on the idea that the voided guarantees were a result of Aiyuk missing meetings, as he stated it's often the case a rehabbing player has a different schedule and doesn't always attend meetings.
"Yes, that happened back in July, though, so that was other things," Shanahan said.
"But as far as missing meetings, things like that, any injured player, people on IR, doing rehab, their schedule is totally different than the rest of the team," he added. "So, sometimes they're involved in meetings, sometimes they're not at all."
"Any time a guy is on IR and stuff, they're not in the daily routine of meetings," Shanahan concluded.
When asked if the 49ers and Aiyuk are on the same page about his return to the field, Shanahan wouldn't give an answer and reiterated that Aiyuk is "week to week."
"I can't tell you that," Shanahan said. "I am not getting much dialogue just personally between him and I, and I've been told that it's week-to-week, so each week, I wait to see if he's ready to come back for practice, and I haven't got that answer yet."
All in all, things have obviously gotten pretty bad between Aiyuk and the Niners. As a result, it's hard to envision him playing another snap in San Francisco.
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