Brandon Aiyuk’s social media barrage against the 49ers took a darker turn Tuesday, with the wide receiver posting messages that appeared to target head coach Kyle Shanahan just two weeks after Shanahan was injured in a car accident in Palo Alto.
Aiyuk posted a pair of Instagram Stories. The first said:
"You can't win the race if you crash out (explosion and white flag emojis)"
The second read:
"Keep yo head up and stay in yo own lane. You gone win (checkered flag emoji)"
The timing made the posts especially jarring, coming after Shanahan’s account of the crash, in which he said he had been looking for his cellphone, which had slipped into his seat while he was driving.
Aiyuk has been on a public tear against San Francisco for weeks. He has repeatedly taken shots at the team on Instagram, at one point calling them "b******" and pushing to be sent to the Washington Commanders so he could reunite with college teammate Jayden Daniels.
That Commanders connection doesn’t stop there. Washington general manager Adam Peters also has a past tie to Aiyuk, having been an assistant for 49ers general manager John Lynch when the receiver was drafted in the first round in 2020.
Peters was asked about Aiyuk during his media availability Tuesday, and he gave a careful answer when NBC Sports Washington’s JP Finlay brought up the receiver’s online behavior.
“That’s a good roundabout question. We look at that stuff.
It’s not always the first thing we look at. Obviously, you’re looking at the tape and you talk to the teams the players have been on and how they were in the locker room, the players that played with them, and so on and so forth to make those decisions.
But that’s not usually a huge part of it.”
Aiyuk has not played since tearing his ACL and MCL against the Kansas City Chiefs in October 2024. He spent all of 2025 rehabbing, and the 49ers voided his 2026 guarantees for lack of participation.
Ironically, Aiyuk also has an active arrest warrant tied to a reckless driving incident from December 2025, when he allegedly sped past Levi’s Stadium.
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