Brandon Aiyuk’s return to football is no longer just a fight with the San Francisco 49ers. It is waiting on the commissioner’s desk, and a little-known league rule means Tuesday’s trade deadline could change who gets to decide what happens next. Aiyuk was still not reinstated as Week 9 kicked off on Sunday, two days after his meeting with the team ended with Drew Rosenhaus saying only “to be continued.”
Trading ends at 4 p.m. ET on Tuesday, Nov. 10. Under the NFL’s Player Personnel Handbook, that is also the moment the reinstatement process gets harder for a player in Aiyuk’s position.
What the rule says
The collective bargaining agreement says nothing about the reserve/left squad list. The rules for it are in the handbook the league office uses to run rosters, and Mike Florio laid out the key passage late Saturday. A player on the list “must apply to the Commissioner for reinstatement to his club’s Active List.” He cannot be reinstated in the same season he was placed there, and he cannot be reinstated at all in the last 30 days of the regular season or in the playoffs.
The part that matters this week is the window in between. The handbook says no such player “will be reinstated during the period between the trading deadline of a subsequent season and the 30-day deadline unless the club initiates the reinstatement request and the Commissioner approves it.” In plain terms, Aiyuk’s own application carries weight only until Tuesday afternoon. After that, the request would have to come from the 49ers, and the commissioner would still have to sign off. Once the final 30 days of the season begin in mid-December, the door closes until the offseason.
Rosenhaus, Aiyuk are off — doesn’t sound as if anything was resolved. “To be continued,” Rosenhaus said … pic.x.com/qWih0bmtKg
— Matt Barrows (@mattbarrows) November 6, 2026
Not automatic after all
Florio wrote that, until recently, people around the league treated a return from the reserve/left squad list as an administrative step that was close to automatic. Aiyuk’s case has shown otherwise. Nothing in the rule sets a deadline for the commissioner to act, so the wording appears to give him wide discretion to approve, delay or deny a request.
That discretion is landing on top of the money dispute. The league sent Aiyuk, his representatives and the NFL Players Association a letter last week saying he owes the 49ers roughly $13 million in bonus forfeiture from the signing bonus on his 2024 extension. Florio’s read is that the league and the team are effectively tying the two issues together, so that reinstatement waits until the repayment is settled. If Aiyuk wants back quickly, he wrote, the most likely path is to return the money and try to earn it back with another club.
The union has said nothing publicly. Because the CBA does not cover the list, the league can argue the matter falls under the management rights clause, which lets clubs run their operations as they see fit unless the agreement says otherwise. That would leave the players’ side with few options, though precedent could help Aiyuk if the league has approved past requests without a delay like this one.
Why the 49ers hold the cards
As long as Aiyuk is not reinstated, he costs San Francisco no roster spot and no salary, and the club keeps his rights. He did not appear on Friday’s personnel notice, the official list of league transactions, and no change was reported over the weekend. The 6-1 49ers host the Raiders on Sunday, and Kyle Shanahan said last week he “couldn’t care less” about the outcome.
That is why the deadline matters more for Aiyuk than for the team. Before Tuesday, a reinstatement would let San Francisco keep him, trade him or release him. After Tuesday, a trade is off the table and reinstatement would need the 49ers to ask for it. A release, the outcome most people around the league have expected since he filed his paperwork, would then depend on the team starting a process it has no financial reason to rush.
Washington’s interest, which was noted in Saturday’s deadline roundup, runs into the same clock. Jeremy Fowler summed up the near-term outlook after Friday’s meeting: Aiyuk’s prospects “in the short term are not promising, assuming he becomes a free agent eventually.”
Aiyuk, 28, has not played since tearing the ACL, MCL and meniscus in his right knee on Oct. 20, 2024. He told reporters on Friday he is “back to 100%” and wants to be reinstated. For how the meeting itself went, see our report from Santa Clara.
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