Brandon Aiyuk spent more than ten months on the reserve/left squad list. He ran a social media campaign against the organization that drafted him and publicly promised never to do business with the San Francisco 49ers again.

Now he has blinked, as the 28-year-old receiver, newly represented by Drew Rosenhaus, filed his reinstatement paperwork with the NFL on Wednesday and plans to walk back into the team facility in Santa Clara on Friday afternoon.

That one move takes the pressure of this long, ugly standoff off his shoulders and puts it squarely on John Lynch and Kyle Shanahan.

For most of the past year, the reserve/left squad designation worked perfectly for the 49ers.

Aiyuk sat off the roster, collected no paychecks, and triggered no dead-money charge, while the front office could say he had played his last snap in red and gold without having to act on it.

Aiyuk could have ended that arrangement whenever he wanted. Instead, he refused, and he kept up a stream of shots at the franchise, compared his situation to slavery, and traded barbs online with Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels.

All of it made him look more interested in airing grievances than in playing football. Hiring Rosenhaus and filing the paperwork mark a long-overdue change of course and put a player under contract through 2028 back in the building, whether the 49ers like it or not.

That is exactly why San Francisco can’t simply shut the door and wait him out again. Once Aiyuk is reinstated, the team has to pay him.

Keeping him around only to bury him on the inactive list or send him home would mean spending real money and cap space on a grudge.

It would also hand Aiyuk the moral high ground he spent the past year giving away and turn a self-inflicted saga into a story about a team refusing to let a healthy player work.

The trade deadline arrives Tuesday, which gives Lynch a narrow window to find a partner. The market will be modest at best for a receiver who hasn’t played since tearing multiple knee ligaments in October 2024, but even a late-round pick would beat carrying dead weight.

If no offer comes, releasing him is the professional, decisive move: the 49ers take the financial hit now instead of letting the drama fester through the second half of the season.

Ricky Pearsall is lost for the year, De’Zhaun Stribling is on injured reserve, and Mike Evans and Deebo Samuel have both battled injuries.

The 49ers are thin enough at receiver that a healthy Aiyuk playing as he did at his peak would genuinely help.

Still, that version of Aiyuk is two years gone; the trust between the two sides looks beyond repair, and Shanahan’s locker room has already shown it can function without him.

The 49ers don’t owe Aiyuk a warm welcome, but they do owe themselves a clean ending.

Trade him or cut him, and let this chapter finally close.