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Adam Schefter predicts how the Brandon Aiyuk Era will end for 49ers
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- Adam Schefter predicts how the Brandon Aiyuk Era will end for 49ers
The San Francisco 49ers have a lot of decisions to make this offseason, and among those is how they'll move on from wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk .
Aiyuk signed a four-year, $120 million contract extension before the 2024 season, but after he tore his ACL and MCL in Week 7 against the Kansas City Chiefs , the wideout cut off communication with San Francisco during the offseason and had his guarantees voided.
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The 49ers have made it clear that Aiyuk won't be on the roster in 2026, but now they're just hoping that another team is willing to trade something for him.
Appearing on Barstool Sports' " Pardon My Take " podcast on Friday, ESPN's Adam Schefter shared how he believes the situation will work out.
"He'll be released on the first day of the league year, I would think," Schefter said. "Here's the thing. They had so many trade conversations with so many teams, and I think that they've probably gone back to many of those teams, but the math is different, the situation is different, the way he behaved this year with some of the social media stuff is different. Everything is different.
"I think teams are curious, and before they would do anything, they want to have to check out his knee, because that was his own devastating knee injury, and they wanted to see where he's at mentally before they would move on. There are a lot of questions there, but we know he's not going to be in San Francisco."
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Schefter couldn't explain where things broke down, but he did give some insight into how something like Aiyuk's situation could happen.
"It's honestly a tough situation," Schefter said. "Some guys, when they don't have that structure and discipline and the comradery and the teammates and the support, when you're away from that, it's not always easy to over come that."
Aiyuk didn't play a single snap in 2025, so the status of his knee injury is completely unknown at this point, which Schefter acknowledged. However, he did identify a few teams who the 49ers have probably spoken to about the player.
"We don't know what he's physically going to be like. His knee was shredded," Schefter said. "I can't say that {the Washington Commanders won't go after him), because him and Jayden Daniels are close, and Jayden may push for him . I think that's a possibility. Just go back and look at the teams that the Niners spoke to when they were having trade talks - the Steelers , the Commanders, the Patriots. I would think all of those teams would at least check in on him. Now, who's going to move forward? That's a hard thing to say."
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This article originally appeared on Niners Wire: Adam Schefter predicts how the Brandon Aiyuk Era will end for 49ers
