Ten years ago, Brandon Aiyuk’s knee injury could have been a career.
He not only torn his ACL during the defeat of week 7 of the 49ers against the Chiefs of Kansas City. He also torn his MCL and his meniscus. This means that it will certainly not be ready for part of the training camp, and it will probably be missing at the very least the week 1.
And yet, the 49ers have said in recent months that Aiyuk was definitely ahead of the calendar. ESPN recently tried to decipher what it means.
“Adam Schefter of ESPN reported on his podcast that he” thinks [Aiyuk’s] Ready to play in mid-season ‘even with its restoration well, “writes Dan Graziano d’Espn.
“While Aiyuk was present for Minicamp in San Francisco, no report from the building indicates no change in this calendar. The general manager John Lynch echoes that rehabilitation is going well, but he would not put a calendar” on the return of Aiyuk. Coach Kyle Shanahan said that Aiyuk would likely start to form the camp on the physical list to play (PUP).
“Critically, the inclusion on the list of puppies during the training camp does not force Aiyuk to miss regular season games. If it remains on this list after the deadline of 53 men at the end of August, he will have to miss at least the first four games of the season.
“We will almost certainly not see Aiyuk in the pads running the roads and taking success this summer, but how much work he does on the side fields could help predict his availability for this first month of the season-and perhaps beyond.”
Keep in mind that Aiyuk missed the whole training camp last year when he was holding for a new contract, then he played the worst football in his career for a better part of two months before injuring himself. So rushing Aiyuk on the ground after missing the training camp for the second consecutive season may not be wise. His best season occurred in 2023 when he also had the best off -season of any player on the team.
I suppose that Aiyuk will indeed start the season on the list of puppies, and the 49ers will keep him on the shelf until they absolutely need him. I would not be surprised either if they exchanged it before the deadline for exchanges, since they tried to exchange it during the combine harvester in February and failed.
