The San Francisco 49ers do not expect to have receiver Brandon Aiyuk on the field for the season-opening game against the Seattle Seahawks on Sept. 7.
Aiyuk is battling back from a serious right knee injury that included tears to the ACL and MCL. He was injured in Week 7 of last season.
San Francisco general manager John Lynch told KNBR on Thursday that Aiyuk is making progress but the team isn’t ready to put a date on his return.
“There’s just steps that you have to continue to hit and I’ll continue to say that Brandon is doing very well in his rehab,” Lynch said. “Do we have an exact date right now? No. I don’t think it’ll be Week 1, but hopefully I’m surprised. We’ll see — continue to watch him work his way through his rehab. But we want him fully healthy.
“He had a significant injury, so you have to do a significant rehab. He’s doing a really good job with that, and we got to continue to do so.”
Aiyuk was placed on the active/physically unable to perform list prior to training camp. If he is still on the PUP list at the outset of the season, he will be required to miss at least the first four games.
Aiyuk, 27, had 25 receptions for 374 yards and no touchdowns over seven games last season after developing into a star over the previous two campaigns. Aiyuk caught a career-high 78 passes for 1,015 yards and a career-best eight touchdowns in 2022, followed by 75 receptions for a career-high 1,342 yards in 2023.
Also, rookie running back Jordan James will miss time after injuring a finger earlier this week.
“Jordan James broke his finger, so he’s getting surgery on that,” 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan said. “He’ll be out a couple of weeks.”
James was a fifth-round pick in April’s draft. He rushed for 2,215 yards and 31 touchdowns in three seasons at Oregon.
The 49ers also released veteran cornerback Eli Apple on Thursday, a little more than a week after signing him.
–Field Level Media
