The 49ers don’t know for sure when wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk will be ready to return from last season’s knee injury. But it should be around the middle of the season.
Head coach Kyle Shanahan said today that there’s still a range of potential outcomes, but Week Six is a potential target date he’s thinking of, not just for Aiyuk to make his 2025 debut, but also for quarterback Kurtis Rourke and safety Malik Mustapha, both of whom are also recovering from knee injuries.
“I kind of view all those guys around the same time, whether it’s Mustapha, whether it’s Rourke, or whether it’s Brandon,” he said. “I always see them around Week Six, which means that could be Week 10, it could be Week Five, but that’s the area where I start thinking about it, which is a long ways away. I know it’s not Week One or anything like that, so it’s something I’m not really thinking about too much.”
Aiyuk tore his ACL and MCL on October 20 of last season in a game against the Chiefs. The 49ers’ Week Six game is against the Buccaneers on October 12, so if that’s Aiyuk’s return date, he would have missed just under a full year.
The 27-year-old Aiyuk was one of the best wide receivers in the NFL in 2023, but in 2024 his production had declined before his season was cut short. The 49ers will hope to get the 2023 version of Aiyuk back in 2025, even if they have to wait until several weeks into the season.
