Brandon Aiyuk Keeps Motive Close To Vest In Statement Outside 49ers Office

SANTA CLARA — A large, black Mercedes van pulled up outside the 49ers’ team offices, a stone’s throw from Levi’s Stadium, the side door swung open and out stepped Brandon Aiyuk.

The erstwhile wide receiver ended his longstanding refusal to step foot on the team’s property Friday afternoon, appearing just before 3 p.m. for a meeting with front office officials.

Both sides kept their cards close to the vest, but the summit represented the first step in Aiyuk resuming his NFL career that has been on pause since injuring his knee in Week 7 of the 2024 season.

The 49ers made no acknowledgment of the meeting besides coach Kyle Shanahan, who was asked about it Friday and said he did not plan on being involved in any way.

“It’s been over for our football team for a long time,” Shanahan said. “So I don’t hear much, except questions about him today.”

A little more than an hour after they arrived, Aiyuk and Drew Rosenhaus emerged from the office building with “nothing to report,” according to the agent, who only began representing Aiyuk this week.

“To be continued,” Rosenhaus said.

Aiyuk responded to one question from the California Post: Who was in the meeting?

“I met with the bosses, man,” he said. “Big bosses. Big business.”

There remained no immediate resolution to Aiyuk’s situation. Currently going unpaid on the 49ers’ reserve/left squad list, the 28-year-old receiver must first apply for reinstatement to the NFL.

In a brief statement upon arriving at the team offices, Aiyuk said that was the goal.

“Nice to see y’all,” Aiyuk said, greeting the horde of about a dozen reporters and cameramen, wearing a matching Adidas camouflage hat and track jacket with dark blue pants.

“I’m feeling great, feeling healthy. Long recovery process, long rehab process. But I’m back to 100% and looking to get reinstated into the National Football League.”

The stakeout spectacle was put into motion when ESPN insider Adam Schefter broke the news Monday that Aiyuk had hired Rosenhaus, a longtime and respected NFL agent, with the intent to get back to football.

The drama kicked into high gear Friday morning, when Schefter reported that Aiyuk and his new agent were en route to the 49ers’ offices for a 3 p.m. meeting with team officials.

Shanahan’s weekly Friday news conference that typically lasts 10-15 minutes was over in three minutes as reporters rushed to get eyes on the receiver who has been persona non grata around these parts for the better part of the past year and a half.

A television news chopper hovered overhead, tracking the van carrying Aiyuk and Rosenhaus. At one point, the van pulled up to the 49ers’ team offices about an hour prior to the meeting, spotted four reporters already staking out the facility and turned around.

An hour later, the same van reappeared, and Aiyuk and Rosenhaus emerged.

“Obviously Brandon is here to meet with the team. Fortunately he’s feeling good physically. He’s healthy. He’s ready to get back to work,” Rosenhaus said in a prepared statement. “Don’t really have any comment on where he’s going to play. We’ll keep that between us and the Niners. But obviously we’re here with all the right intentions.”

It will take more than the right intentions for Aiyuk to resume his NFL career, even if it’s a step in the right direction. Despite signing a $120 million extension before the 2024 season, Aiyuk hasn’t showed up to the team facilities since last fall and hasn’t appeared in a game since that October.

Shanahan has repeatedly dismissed the idea of Aiyuk ever playing another snap for the 49ers, and again Friday afternoon, about two hours before Aiyuk’s meeting with team brass, Shanahan said, he “could[n’t] care less” about the outcome and that “your guess is as good as mine.”

Then there is the matter of Aiyuk’s legal trouble. There remains an outstanding warrant for his arrest in Santa Clara County, stemming from a video he posted to social media showing himself driving in excess of 100 mph down the road past Levi’s Stadium.

Asked by The Post if Aiyuk had settled matters with police, Rosenhaus responded, “We’re working on that.”

Aiyuk also must come to an agreement with the 49ers on the $23 million bonus he received when he signed his extension in 2024. According to multiple reports Friday, San Francisco is demanding that he pay back $13 million of it before reinstating him.

The 49ers voided the remaining guaranteed money in Aiyuk’s contract, citing his absence from the team facility while rehabbing the knee injury he suffered the last time he took the field for the 49ers.

Aiyuk tore his ACL and MCL seven weeks into his fifth NFL season. Since being drafted 25th overall out of Arizona State in 2020, Aiyuk had totaled 4,305 receiving yards and hauled in 25 touchdowns on 294 career receptions.

But he hasn’t caught a pass — or stepped onto an NFL field — in more than two years.

On Friday, he took the first step to getting back on the field.

It just isn’t likely to happen in a 49ers uniform.