March 20, 2026, 4:04 a.m. ET

When will the San Francisco 49ers release wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk? It’s a matter of when, not if, as general manager John Lynch already said that Aiyuk’s time in San Francisco was over.

“I think it’s safe to say that he’s played his last snap with the Niners,” Lynch said in January, via Nick Wagoner of ESPN.

Once Aiyuk is released, the Washington Commanders are the heavy favorite to land him. Aiyuk is close friends with quarterback Jayden Daniels and general manager Adam Peters knows him well from his time in San Francisco.

49ers tight end George Kittle recently shed some light on when Aiyuk stopped being around the team last season.

So, why is San Francisco still holding onto Aiyuk? His contract, combined with his injury, in which he tore his ACL and MCL in October 2024, has made him untradeable. Yet, the 49ers are holding out hope that another team will send them a late-round draft pick.

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It’s not going to happen. Eventually, the Niners will release Aiyuk, and Washington could sign him to a one-year prove-it deal.

NFL salary cap analyst Mike Ginnitti of Spotrac recently joined the “Kevin Sheehan Show” on Team 980 in Washington, D.C., and made his prediction on when the Aiyuk/49ers saga finally ends.

“He gets released on June 2nd, which is terrible, by the way,” Ginnitti said.

“That’s terrible because the San Francisco 49ers can designate him a post-June 1st release right now. That could have happened last week. They can free up this cap situation in June, put him on the open market, and let him pick a team right now. I believe that they will choose not to do that. They will wait until June and wait until after the draft and make all the other teams make decisions without him being in the fold, including draft picks. And then they will release him and hope that he probably latches on somewhere at a very, very small contract for 2026. I think there’s a little bit of vindictiveness happening here, but I guess I understand it if things really got that sour.”

That’s certainly petty. San Francisco can do whatever it likes with Aiyuk. We’ve heard numerous stories about the breakdown of the relationship between the two sides. The truth probably lies somewhere in the middle, as it usually does. The 49ers’ goal here is for other teams to fill their receiver needs, run out of cap space and use a draft pick on a receiver, limiting the pool of teams that Aiyuk could sign with.

The good news for Washington is that it can afford to wait. The Commanders still have over $50 million in cap space and, while they could take a receiver with the No. 7 overall pick in next month’s 2026 NFL Draft, signing Aiyuk would still be on the table.

It’s a waiting game for now.