It has been more than two years since Brandon Aiyuk last stepped onto an NFL field, and after a long stretch of social media shots, public vows, and silence, the former All-Pro receiver finally appears ready to take the one step that has kept his career frozen.

According to NFL reporter Jordan Schultz, Aiyuk is close to hiring new representatives and is expected to file for reinstatement soon, with the clear goal of getting back into the league and onto a roster that isn’t the San Francisco 49ers.

That is a sharp turn from the summer, when Aiyuk declared that he would not be “reinstating” with the 49ers or doing any kind of business with them again.

That stance did nothing to free him, because the reserve/left squad list doesn’t work that way.

A player in that category is treated as retired under league rules, and the only way off the list is a formal petition to Commissioner Roger Goodell. His old team keeps his rights throughout.

The trouble started well before Aiyuk went quiet. After signing a four-year, $120 million extension in August 2024, he tore his ACL, MCL, and meniscus against Kansas City that October, and the 49ers voided roughly $27 million in 2026 guarantees in July 2025 over problems with how he handled his rehab.

Once that decision became public in November 2025, Aiyuk stopped showing up at the facility and cut off contact with coaches, teammates, and the training staff, and San Francisco moved him to the left squad list that December.

By January, general manager John Lynch was saying plainly that Aiyuk would never play for the franchise again.

Filing the paperwork only gets the process started, and San Francisco still controls most of what happens after that.

The trade deadline is only days away, and while the 49ers would surely like to get something back for a contract that has become a sunk cost, trade talks went nowhere this offseason, and Aiyuk has been called close to untradeable.

Once reinstatement brings real money back into the picture, releasing him outright may be the most practical move for a front office that has already shut the door.

Even if he gets free, Aiyuk has other questions to answer. Any team would want him to pass a physical after such a long layoff, and a warrant issued in Santa Clara County after a speeding case this summer adds another complication.

The bigger question for teams may be whether they trust him after a saga in which his own behavior reportedly scared off some potential suitors.

Washington, where he could reunite with his Arizona State quarterback Jayden Daniels, has long been the landing spot he wanted, and the Patriots chased him hard back in 2024.

Now 28, Aiyuk still has the talent that made him one of the league’s most dangerous route runners.

Whether he plays a snap in 2026 depends on how quickly he files, how San Francisco responds, and whether a new team believes the comeback is real.