Brandon Aiyuk's social media tirades have been mostly background noise now that the preseason has begun proper, but the wide receiver has one unwelcome weapon at his disposal.
All NFL teams have storylines heading into training camp, both on and off the field. You could be forgiven for the seemingly endless injury curse affecting the San Francisco 49ers having a warped sense of humor, given the first injury of the preseason was the head coach.
Read More: Kyle Shanahan injury news will have 49ers fans thinking the darkest thoughts
Fortunately, neither Kyle Shanahan or anyone else involved in the car accident are seriously injured, so the biggest story (off the practice field at least) remains the antics of wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk.
The troubled wideout has had plenty of attention already, so there's not much point rehashing a lot of it, but the bottom line is the Niners remain uninterested in rewarding his tantrums and bizarre posting by releasing him. This is assuming any team wants to add him to the roster by this stage.
Aiyuk is not even on the 49ers roster. With the "left squad" tag, Aiyuk isn't part of the 90-man roster, and general manager John Lynch seems supremely uninterested in even discussing his status:
"Brandon is on a ‘left squad’ designation. As such, he’s not on our 90-man roster. I’m, personally, and we as an organization, are going to focus on the players that are here. And so, I don’t have anything to say on that, anything to add to that. We wish him well. We wish his family well."John Lynch
How Brandon Aiyuk can distract the 49ers
Because Aiyuk has the "left squad" tag, he must apply to the NFL for reinstatement to the league before continuing his career. As of writing, this still has not occurred.
If Aiyuk does apply for reinstatement and the league grants the request, Aiyuk could then force the Niners to release him by simply reporting for training camp because he would then count against both the roster and against the salary cap.
So, all Aiyuk would have to do to become less of a peripheral distraction and more of an actual one, would be to request reinstatement and finally force the Niners into acknowledging the problem.
While the 49ers will probably eventually sever the relationship for good, they clearly want to do it on their terms. While the status quo is fine for now, it'll be interesting to see as the season gets closer if the embattled Aiyuk takes the initiative.
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