While San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk has remained remarkably quiet during the regular season, it seemed inevitable that he’d make some noise or find his way back into the headlines at some point.
That time has come as it was reported on Wednesday morning that Aiyuk plans to report to the Niners facility on Friday.
On the surface, this seems like bad news for the 49ers. While they seemed perfectly content to leave him on the reserve/left squad list for eternity, at some point, something was going to have to give. Now, San Francisco will have to choose whether to keep Aiyuk, trade him, or release him.
The most obvious answer is to release him, which will have financial ramifications, but there’s just no point in keeping him around and allowing a walking, talking distraction to take up any more oxygen than he needs to.
Brandon Aiyuk won't be a distraction to 49ers
One’s first impulse might be to think this is the last thing the 49ers need right now. They are 6-1 coming off a bye week, right in the mix to potentially claim the No. 1 seed in the NFC if they have a strong second half of the season. Then, in walks Aiyuk looking for attention again, which seems like it could throw off San Francisco's mojo or just make things weird in the locker room.
That’s always a possibility, but keep in mind everything else this team has gone through.
Head coach Kyle Shanahan got in a major car accident over the summer, and owner Jed York got busted in a prostitution sting.
So a disgruntled wide receiver who has been away for a year while posting bizarre videos on social media, deciding to show up to the facility is almost child’s play for San Francisco.
While players like George Kittle have talked about reaching out to Aiyuk and having some contact with him, he hasn’t been in the fold for a long time, so it probably already feels like he’s been released or that he isn’t part of the picture because, well.. he hasn’t been.
Of course, the one thing that could complicate things is the active warrant out for Aiyuk’s arrest, stemming from an incident last year when he filmed himself speeding past Levi’s Stadium. If the police were to arrest Aiyuk when he shows up at the facility, that would be an absolute circus show, but it would probably be on brand for the 2026 Niners.
This was bound to happen at some point, and while it is annoying and odd, it really shouldn’t impact the 49ers at all because they have already dealt with so many off-the-field distractions.
This shouldn’t phase them in the slightest.
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