San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk was eligible to return in Week 5. There was cautious optimism that it would happen after preseason videos surfaced of Aiyuk running routes at about 25 percent.
That was in August. The assumption was that, by late October, Aiyuk would be up to speed and ready to play ball again. But that hasn’t been the case, as we head into Week 11. Every week, we’re hearing about how the team is getting close to opening Aiyuk’s practice window, but that’s the extent.
On Thursday morning, during an interview on KNBR, general manager John Lynch gave a weekly update surrounding Aiyuk’s potential return and whether 2025 will end up being a redshirt year for him:
“That’s not the intention. The intention is to get Brandon back. We’re not there yet. But we’ll continue to have him excel at his rehab. And we just gotta get him to a place where we’re comfortable opening that window, and see if he can make it back on the field. That is the intention, to get him back on the field. But we’ll see. No absolutes there. Just take it as it comes there.”
So, no new information from Lynch. Most of these Thursday interviews are Lynch rehashing what Kyle Shanahan said during his Wednesday press conference. Are the 49ers honestly waiting for Aiyuk to reach his GPS numbers? That would make sense given that he essentially tore everything in his knee, and it wasn’t a typical ACL injury.
Some believe the team is waiting to see how the results on the field go before deciding whether to bring Aiyuk back. But if that were the case, knowing the 49ers are above .500 and will rely on their offense to do the heavy-lifting, wouldn’t they go out of their way to get Aiyuk back on the field? You’d think.
Nonetheless, we continue to wait.
