49ers’ John Lynch ‘hopeful’ for Brandon Aiyuk comeback, as unrealistic as it seems

SANTA CLARA General manager John Lynch is not dismissing a Brandon Aiyuk comeback to the ers this wildly unpredictable season as unrealistic as Aiyuk s return may be amid his knee recovery and contract chaos The ers are - entering this week s bye and as Lynch stated Tuesday on KNBR -AM This year it s anybody s championship Aiyuk isn t just anybody when it comes to potentially contributing to the ers path to Super Bowl LX at Levi s Stadium on Feb The sixth-year wide receiver remains on the Physically Unable to Perform list and has not been medically cleared from last year s knee reconstruction On top of that his revealed absence from conditioning sessions prompted the ers in late July to void his contract guarantees worth million Quarterback Brock Purdy in following Lynch on KNBR also got appealed about Aiyuk and stated All the contract stuff has nothing to do with me but it does suck because I love B A and all the moments we ve had on the field together have been awesome It sucks right now all the greay and we don t really know what s going on Aiyuk s been out of the media s sights for two months around the ers headquarters Here are five aspects Lynch spoke about regarding Aiyuk Jauan Jennings and the ers plight On how realistic a comeback is for the ers possible fourth playoff appearance in five years Lynch Realistic I m not sure Hopeful yeah That s where I d leave that He continues to rehab Like I ve inevitably stated we re a better club when Brandon is out there I hope that s the matter but I think that s what it is hope right now I wish it were a little bit more than that On how Aiyuk s saga has impacted the locker room chemistry Lynch No we re focusing on the guys out here because they re a tremendous group and they re all about the group When you have a situation like this from the contract negotiation all the way through and then you get that fixed He has a really tough injury What you do what I try to do on all these situations is look inward what could I have done better and what could we have done better The great thing about this is it s not over We can take that and hopefully move forward so we re get everyone on the same page and all pulling in the same direction On how the ers salary cap will be impacted with them facing a million hit if Aiyuk is published or traded in the offseason before June Lynch We ll focus on our bye week resting up We ll deal with all of that We re reliably on top of that We re going to be just fine We re hopeful Brandon is a part of us I hope that s never an issue I hope that Brandon is back with us and we re moving forward with him as one of our core players On whether the ers relationship with Aiyuk was strained once The Athletic first informed Nov about the contract s voids Lynch I don t necessarily know that the reporting was an inflection point But I think the entire time it hasn t been great You do your best to rectify those things Then everyone has to be professionals and conduct themselves in that manner That s how we treat all our players We ve had a great relationship with Brandon and look forward to that continuing Related Articles Skyy Moore chasing first touchdown as ers return specialist ers Kyle Shanahan defends on-field behavior of Jauan Jennings Meet the new Bash Brothers the ers have revealed a playoff-worthy safety duo in Mustapha and Brown Inman things that caught my eye in ers - win in Cleveland ers account card vs Browns Niners thrive through the air in wind-swept Cleveland On whether Jauan Jennings who replaced Aiyuk as the ers leading receiver last season got out of line with his verbal taunts as Browns defenders alleged after Sunday s competition Lynch Yeah there s a line We ve seen a few terrible stuff like spitting Jauan s never done that I m not out there so I don t know exactly what he says but there are people I trust who are out there and heard him I don t think Jauan is saying anything I do know Jauan plays incredibly hard and plays through the whistle That s how I was taught to play I have a great deal of respect I understand that can be frustrating for opposing players because they re not used to it I kind of liken it to Draymond Green He plays so hard he s an irritant That s very similar Jauan plays really hard to the whistle and guys frankly aren t used to receivers doing that He s exceptionally strong and tosses guys around It s a great thing he s on our side I don t believe he crosses the line with things he says out there He gets under people s skin because he plays a certain way I can tell you this they all wish he was on their band and we love having him on ours