The San Francisco 49ers are looking to bounce back after their recent road loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, which dropped their record to 4-2 on the young 2025 NFL season. San Francisco has been battling the injury bug all year, with Brock Purdy missing time, necessitating several starts from Mac Jones, and the team also recently losing star defensive player Fred Warner due to injury.
The 49ers have played the entire year so far without wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk; however, on Thursday, the team got a positive update on his recovery progress.
“He’s getting closer. He is getting closer,” General Manager John Lynch said, per KNBR, via Matt Maiocco of NBCSportsBayArea.com (via Myles Simmons of NBC Sports' Pro Football Talk). “And I can see that each week. He’s better today than he was last week at this time.
“That’s all positive. That’s the update,” he concluded.
The 49ers lost Aiyuk last season due to a torn ACL and MCL shortly after finally ending their drawn-out contract negotiation saga with him.
The team would certainly love to have him back as soon as possible in order to give the team a boost.
Trying times for the 49ers
Considering the sheer amount of injuries that they've dealt with, it's a minor miracle in and of itself that the San Francisco sit at 4-2 at this early point in the season. Mac Jones has been playing the best football of his career so far this year, dicing up the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for nearly 350 yards on Sunday, and he's likely earned himself the opportunity to start somewhere else once next season rolls around.
Still, injuries have been a major theme for the 49ers over the last few years, and it's worth starting to question whether or not San Francisco is continuing to get unlucky, or whether they have assembled a roster full of players who simply can't stay on the field.
In any case, the 49ers will look to get back in the win column when they host the Atlanta Falcons this week on Sunday Night Football.
