SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) — Brandon Aiyuk won't be part of the 2026 San Francisco 49ers with the only remaining question about when he will be off the Niners' roster.
General manager John Lynch and coach Kyle Shanahan held their season-ending news conference on Wednesday, four days after the team was eliminated in a 41-6 playoff loss at Seattle, and put to rest any possibility that Aiyuk could return after leaving the team during the season.
“I think
it’s safe to say that he has played his last snap with the Niners,” Lynch said. "It’s unfortunate, a situation that just went awry. I will look long and hard at what could have been done differently, but sometimes just doesn’t work out. And I think that this was a case where that happened.”
Lynch said the final transaction, likely a release, will come in “due time.”
Aiyuk's career in San Francisco took a major downturn after he signed a four-year, $120 million extension just before the start of the 2024 season after holding himself out of training camp practices all summer.
After being a second-team All-Pro in 2023, Aiyuk struggled in the first half of last season before going down with a season-ending knee injury in Week 7.
Then this past summer, the team voided $27 million guaranteed in his contract for next season when Aiyuk failing to participate in meetings and other team activities. Aiyuk was around the team during training camp and early in the season before Shanahan said he disappeared and failed to return texts or calls from anyone in the organization.
That led to the decision to put him on the season-ending reserve/left squad list in December and will pave the way for his likely release this offseason in a development that still confounds the Niners' leadership.
“There’s not much of an explanation because it’s really hard for us and anyone else to understand,” Shanahan said. “That’s why it’s something I’ve never seen in 22 years of coaching. It’s unfortunate and it’s confusing because it’s confusing for all of us. ... But, eventually you understand that it’s not going to change and you’ve got to move on with your football team, which is always the most important thing.”
While the 49ers will still carry a dead cap charge for Aiyuk next season, Lynch said not paying him $27 million in cash could free up money for other moves.
The 49ers will search for a fifth defensive coordinator in five seasons after Robert Saleh was hired as head coach by Tennessee earlier this week.
Saleh returned to San Francisco this season after a failed stint as head coach of the New York Jets and pieced together a defense ravaged by injuries to stars such as Nick Bosa and Fred Warner.
Shanahan had been hoping to avoid another search for a defensive coordinator after firing Steve Wilks and Nick Sorensen following the past two seasons. DeMeco Ryans left after 2022 to take over as head coach of Houston.
Shanahan said he would like to maintain a similar style of defense and said defensive assistant Gus Bradley is a strong internal candidate for the job. Bradley helped create the “Legion of Boom” defense in Seattle when he was there from 2009-12 and has served as defensive coordinator with the Chargers, Raiders and Colts the past decade after a stint as head coach in Jacksonville.
“I wouldn’t say it’s a real wide net, but Gus is the obvious one to everyone and is to us too," Shanahan said. “Gus would be the main internal candidate. We feel very fortunate to get Gus and great about that. But also, we are going to go through the whole process.”
The major injuries that sidelined stars such as Bosa, Warner and tight end George Kittle had a major impact on San Francisco's season but the team also dealt with several other injuries as the Niners once again ranked near the top of the league in games lost to injuries.
Outside of a relatively healthy season in 2023 when the Niners reached the Super Bowl, they have ranked near the top of the league in injuries.
“Injuries are a part of this game,” Lynch said. "What we strive to do is never to eliminate injuries, but to mitigate injuries, and I think we have a lot of good processes. We’ll challenge them all. That process has begun. It never frankly stopped, but yes, we’ll look at everything and we’ll examine everything.”
Lynch said the team has heard the speculation that an electrical substation located in proximity to the practice field could contribute to the high rate of injuries. He said he hasn't seen any evidence that it has but that the team will investigate further.
“I think you have to look into everything,” Lynch said. “We’ve been reaching out to anyone and everyone to see does a study exist other than a guy sticking an apparatus underneath the fence and by coming up with a number that I have no idea what that means. That’s what we know exists. We’ve heard that debunked. So yes, we will look into it.”
The Niners have practiced at this location since 1988 with the substation located next door.
Lynch said he expected Bosa back from his torn ACL by the start of training camp and was hopeful first-round defensive end Mykel Williams can return from his in that timeframe as well.
He didn't give a timeline on when Kittle could return after going down with an Achilles tendon injury in the wild-card win against Philadelphia, but is counting on him to be a major contributor again next season.
Rookie defensive tackle Alfred Collins might not need surgery after hurting his shoulder in the playoff loss.
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