The relationship between the San Francisco 49ers and wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk has seemingly fizzled out.

Niners general manager John Lynch said during a Jan. 21 news conference that Aiyuk has most likely ‘played his last snap’ for San Francisco.

‘The plan in terms of the transaction, that will come in due time, (but) I think it’s safe to say that he’s played his last snap with the Niners,’ Lynch said. ‘It’s unfortunate, you know, situation that just went awry. I will look long and hard at what could have been done differently, but sometimes (it) just doesn’t work out. And I think this was a case where that happened.’

Aiyuk, 27, was placed on the physically unable to perform (PUP) list and missed the entire 2025 season, including postseason games, due to injuries sustained to his ACL and MCL in Week 7 of the 2024 NFL season.

At some point during the course of the season, Aiyuk’s relationship with the organization went awry. Lynch said he wasn’t sure what led to the fallout with Aiyuk.

‘I wish I knew,’ Lynch said. ‘I can’t help you there. Sorry.’

When asked if there had been communication with Aiyuk, 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan told reporters ‘there was, but not anymore.’

‘I say it officially stopped for me when last time I tried to get ahold of him and couldn’t,’ Shanahan said. ‘Then tried a couple more times and still couldn’t, and then that matched everyone else that was trying to get ahold of him and couldn’t. Eventually there’s not much of an explanation, because it’s really hard for us and anyone else to understand.’

Shanahan called the situation ‘unfortunate’ and added that he’d never had an experience like this in his 22 years of coaching.

‘It’s confusing, because it’s confusing for all of us,’ Shanahan told reporters. ‘But it eventually becomes, ‘it is what it is’ and you try as hard as you can to fix something that you don’t understand. It’s not like we understand it very well still, but eventually you understand that it’s not going to change and you got to move on with your football team, which is always the most important thing.’

So, what’s next? Lynch said he’d consider trading for a new wide receiver.

‘We’ll explore anything to make our football team better. I think we’ve shown that,’ Lynch told reporters. ‘We’re going to get together and we’re going to put together our plan like we do each and every year. … We’re open to anything that’s going to make our team better.’

Brandon Aiyuk timeline with 49ers

2020

Aiyuk was selected by the 49ers with the 25th overall pick in the 2020 NFL Draft. Aiyuk was drafted out of Arizona State, and before that he played at Sierra College, a junior college in Rocklin, California.

He recorded 60 catches for 748 yards and five touchdowns, appearing in 12 games, in his rookie season. He also ran for two touchdowns in his first year.

2021

In his sophomore season, Aiyuk started 16 games but played in all 17. He finished with 56 catches, 826 yards and five touchdowns.

During a Week 10 game against the Los Angeles Rams, Aiyuk became the fifth-fastest player in franchise history (21 games) to reach 1,000 career receiving yards.

2022

Aiyuk played and started all 17 games in 2022. He recorded his first 1,000-yard season in his third campaign with the 49ers.

He finished with 78 receptions for 1,015 yards and a career-high eight touchdowns.

2023

The 49ers picked up Aiyuk’s fifth-year option on his rookie contract and he followed his 2022 campaign with another 1,000-yard season in 2023.

Aiyuk became the fifth 49ers player to record back-to-back 1,000-yard receiving seasons, joining Jerry Rice (1986-96), Terrell Owens (2000-03), Anquan Boldin (2013-14) and tight end George Kittle (2018-19).

Aiyuk finished the regular season with 75 catches, 1,342 yards and seven touchdowns. His performance earned him second team All-Pro honors.

He then helped the 49ers capture the NFC championship, beating the Detroit Lions 34-31 in the conference title game as he recorded three catches, 68 yards and a touchdown. The 49ers lost the Super Bowl in overtime to the Kansas City Chiefs, 25-22.

2024

Aiyuk signed a four-year, $120 million contract extension with the 49ers.

Unfortunately, he had his 2024 season cut short after he tore his ACL and MCL during a Week 7 loss in a Super Bowl rematch with the Chiefs. He missed the remainder of the season.

Aiyuk finished the season with 25 catches and 374 yards.

2025

Aiyuk went into his sixth NFL season on the PUP list as he recovered from his ACL and MCL injuries.

In November, San Francisco voided all guarantees in Aiyuk’s contract due to lack of communication and failure to complete the deal, according to The Athletic’s Dianna Russini and Michael Silver. They reported that Aiyuk ‘failed to attend meetings and declined to participate in other team activities.’

Aiyuk told the NFL Players Association that he wouldn’t file a grievance in contest.

He was placed on the reserve/left squad list in December.

That same month, Aiyuk posted a video of himself to his YouTube account that showed him driving past the 49ers home stadium, Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, at high speeds exceeding 90 mph, once topping 100 mph, through intersections. The speed limit in that area is 25 mph.

2026

Niners general manager John Lynch says that Aiyuk likely ‘played his last snap’ as a 49er.

Brandon Aiyuk career stats

Games played: 69
Receptions: 294
Yards: 4,305
Touchdowns: 25
Rush attempts: 13
Rush yards: 117
Rush touchdowns: 2

The Denver Broncos quarterback suffered a season-ending ankle injury during the team’s divisional round win over the Buffalo Bills. It marked Denver’s first playoff win since Super Bowl 50, but the celebration was short-lived after it was revealed Nix had fractured his ankle in overtime.

Head coach Sean Payton revealed the news to reporters after the game, adding that the quarterback was scheduled for surgery on Tuesday, Jan. 20.

On Wednesday, Jan. 21, Nix addressed the injury in an Instagram post:

The last few days have been hard to put into words.

What started as one of the most exciting games I’ve ever been a part of ended with some of the most devastating football news I’ve ever received. This is not how I imagined my season would come to an end, but our season has been defined by overcoming adversity and responding to it.

I can’t express how much this team and organization mean to me and how much I believe in them. I couldn’t be more proud of our guys. I couldn’t be more confident in Jarrett. And I couldn’t be more excited for what’s next.

Thank you for all the kind words, love and support over the last few days. Thankful for my trainers, Beau, Vince and Dr. Waldrop for taking great care of me.

God never says oops, and he is always good. He has big plans for this team. We’re not finished, as a matter of fact we’re just getting started. We’re just going to keep climbing higher.

Go Broncos.

Payton told reporters on Jan. 21 that Nix’s surgery went well.

Nix hasn’t missed a start since the Broncos made him the 12th overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, appearing in all 34 regular season games and the two playoff games. It means that Denver will now turn to Jarrett Stidham, the untested backup who has started just four games and appeared in only 20 since entering the league in 2019.

Stidham, who was drafted by the Patriots in the fourth round of the 2019 NFL Draft, will face his former team with a trip to Super Bowl 60 on the line.

USA TODAY Sports released its latest ‘Milan Magic’ episode covering the 2026 Winter Olympics. In preparation for the Milano Cortina Winter Games, ‘Milan Magic’ hosts Christine Brennan and Brian Boitano — an Olympic gold medal champion figure skater — are covering all topics regarding the games extensively and sitting down with Winter Olympics legends in order to get a behind-the-scenes look at these remarkable winter events.

After an enthralling conversation with ‘Quad God’ Ilia Malinin, the duo have returned, now speaking with 1976 Olympic gold medalist Dorothy Hamill, an icon of the figure skating world.

Hamill did far more than win in the Olympics though. She also won the 1976 World Championships in Gothenburg, Sweden, after winning silver each of the two years prior. She is a four-time United States champion as well (1969, 1974-76).

Despite being diagnosed with osteoarthritis at 40 years old and suffering from chronic back pain. Hamill continued to participate in skating events and shows until 2013.

Hamill spoke on numerous topics including the pressure facing most Olympic figure skaters as they take the ice. She even recalled a time when competing in Munich where the home crowd didn’t appreciate the marks given to the German skater before Hamill, prompting a cascade of boos as Hamill took the ice. Hamill said, ‘I just wanted to get it over with.’ Boitano expanded, recalling that Hamill’s father needed to come over to her to calm her down before she skated, and that Hamill’s toughness to be able to perform one of the greatest routines of her life to that point as boos rained down was one of the best moments of Hamill’s career.

Hamill also took time to discuss the difference in figure skating between now and when she competed.

‘It’s a whole new sport,’ Hamill said. She specifically praised Alysa Liu, the gold medal winner at the 2025 World Championships. Liu contemplated retiring at just 16 years old, even taking a two-year hiatus from the sport in order to experience life outside of her sport.

‘I just have so much admiration for her,’ stated Hamill. ‘In figure skating, if you take two weeks off…I could never do anything, so it’s really special.’

Liu will be participating in the 2026 Olympics after a strong performance at the U.S. championships.

Another aspect of the sport that has changed so drastically since Hamill’s time as a competitor is the involvement of social media.

‘I never had to deal with that,’ Hamill said. ‘For me, if there was even one bad review in the newspaper, that was the only thing I could remember. And that would stick with me forever.’

Hamill’s advice to young skaters is to stay away from social media as much as possible. Even in the accolades, there can be negative connotations that will stick with athletes. She notes that people often tend to look for criticisms while drowning out praise and that can have seriously negative effects on competitors ahead of big competitions.

Those words of wisdom from Hamill and much more are available to ‘Milan Magic’ listeners. You can listen to USA TODAY’s podcast on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Watch full episodes on YouTube or on USA TODAY.

Subscribe to USA TODAY’s newsletter: Chasing Gold: Your guide to the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Games.

If there’s anyone who can relate to Sean Payton about now – the Denver Broncos coach is navigating a sudden crisis with quarterback Bo Nix knocked out of the AFC championship game with a season-ending fractured bone in his right ankle – it is Bill Parcells.

The Hall of Fame coach, aka ‘The Tuna,’ guided the New York Giants to a Super Bowl 25 crown with backup quarterback Jeff Hostetler replacing Phil Simms for the stretch run after Simms, ironically, went down with a broken right foot in Week 15 of the 1990 season.

Now, 35 years later, Payton’s team is one victory from advancing to Super Bowl 60, needing backup Jarrett Stidham to, well, turn into a modern-day Hostetler.

That Parcells is Payton’s wise mentor, adds another layer to the plot.

‘I’ve spoken with him. He’s ready to go,’ Parcells told USA TODAY Sports on Tuesday.

Parcells knows all too well how Payton, as New Orleans Saints coach, handled the adversity of losing Drew Brees for five games in 2019 with a torn ligament in his right thumb. Enter Teddy Bridgewater. With Payton pushing the buttons, the Saints went 5-0 without the centerpiece of one of the NFL’s most explosive offenses.

That experience for Payton won’t hurt now.

‘It speaks for itself,’ Parcells grumbled. ‘He’s already been through it. He went through it with Brees. So, he’s done it. He knows what he’s doing.’

It was a given that Payton tapped the Tuna this week, with the New England Patriots coming to Empower Field for the showdown on Sunday. Payton was Parcells’ assistant head coach for three seasons with the Dallas Cowboys, beginning in 2003, before landing his first head coaching job with the Saints. They have remained close over the years, and Payton is hardly shy in expressing his reverence for Parcells, 84, vouching for the influence he has had on his coaching philosophy and style.

And their bond is wrapped in enormous success. Payton ranks 11th on the all-time list for NFL coaching victories (194, including postseason) passing his mentor earlier this season. Parcells is 16th with 183 wins and is one of 14 coaches to win multiple Super Bowls.

In addition to football strategy, the Tuna’s psychological methods surely rubbed off on the Broncos coach. Parcells, for example, was one who would set out mousetraps in the locker room to remind players not to fall into a trap. Payton’s been known to use gas cans as a prop, the message being that they had better not run out of gas.

And Lord knows, like Parcells, Payton, 62, can set a tone with crankiness.

There’s even an inspirational Parcells quote displayed in the hallway of the team’s headquarters, as noted by The Denver Post, that reads: Don’t ever let good enough be good enough.

What a great resource to tap into while in the throes of crisis. If I’m Payton, I’m asking my mentor to take me back to messaging he had for his Giants squad – which included the likes of Lawrence Taylor, Carl Banks, Joe Morris and Mark Bavaro – when Simms suffered his season-ending injury.

If I’m not Payton, I’m asking, too.

‘This is literally what I did: I said, ‘Look, we’re not going to lose or not have a chance to play for a championship because of Jeff Hostetler,” Parcells said. ”It’s going to be one of you other guys.’

‘I used a different word for ‘other guys,’ by the way. It begins with mother, okay? I said, ‘It will be one of you ‘other-blanks’ that screws up something that keeps us out. But he won’t do it. He’ll be ready to go.”

Fast-forward to the present and the gist of those team-oriented, tough-love words from Parcells a generation ago might resonate with the cast surrounding Stidham. In other words, dropped passes, missed blocks, blown coverages and needless penalties, for instance, would be no way to support the fill-in quarterback.

Then there’s a key difference. Hostetler, in his fifth season as Simms’ backup, had an opportunity to ramp up to the pressure-packed postseason. He started the final two regular-season games, and the Giants opened the playoffs with a rout. They won the NFC championship game at San Francisco against the 49ers and the Super Bowl against the Buffalo Bills by a combined total of three points.

Stidham, on the other hand, hasn’t thrown a pass in a real game since 2023. There is no ramp-up acclimation. He is immediately thrown into the fire with a Super Bowl berth at stake. A seventh-year pro, ‘Stiddy,’ as he’s called, was one of Payton’s first free agent signings when the coach arrived in 2023. While there’s undoubtedly a comfort level for Stidham in Payton’s system and vice versa, the minimal action equates to a huge unknown.

‘In fairness to what you’ve seen, which is very limited, he’s ready,’ said Payton, mindful that Stidham sparkled during the preseason and presumably on the practice field. ‘I feel like I have a (No.) 2 (quarterback) that’s capable of starting for a number of teams. I know he feels the same way. So, watch out. Just watch.’

For all Payton has done to establish a culture, revamp personnel and bring winning results during his three seasons, Nix’s injury suddenly poses a challenge that could reveal the level of completeness for this mix. The Broncos absorbed the $85 million salary cap hit for cutting Russell Wilson. They have assembled one of the NFL’s best defenses. They dethroned the Kansas City Chiefs as nine-time defending AFC West champs. They earned the No. 1 seed in the AFC playoffs and won the franchise’s first postseason game in a decade.

Now this. Nix underwent surgery on Tuesday.

Sure, he’s been clutch. Including Sunday, Nix led the Broncos to an NFL-high eight victories this season after trailing in the fourth quarter. Then again, it’s never about just one player and Payton is one of the NFL’s winningest coaches for a reason. There are always adjustments, always fires to put out.

This week, the agenda for Payton and staff, including coordinator Joe Lombardi, is to craft the best plan possible that is tailored to Stidham. That’s not to be confused with reinventing the wheel.

‘It’s almost business as usual,’ Parcells said. ‘Maybe you might have something in there that you’ve seen him do well in practice, on a couple of particular routes that he likes maybe better than (Nix) did. It’s just things like that. You’ve got to talk to the player, too. Find out what he’s confident about, what he feels like. So, you spend a little time doing that prior to making your game plan.’

Parcells’ pupil will surely check those boxes. And then some. Payton will also bring the mindset that the mission is hardly impossible.

Contact Jarrett Bell at jbell@usatoday.com. Follow him on X: @JarrettBell

Connor McDavid, Nikita Kucherov, Nathan MacKinnon, Macklin Celebrini and Leon Draisaitl are making multi-point outings appear easier than tying skates. 

McDavid and MacKinnon lead with 27, Kucherov has 25, and Celebrini and Draisaitl trail with 20.

A total of 25 NHL players have at least 15 multi-point games heading into play on Wednesday, Jan. 21, and 16 players have at least five games with three points each.

Their otherworldly production creates an ideal opportunity to look at and celebrate the five active players with the most multi-point games over their storied careers. Of this top five, only one sits in the top 10 among all players, active or not.

Most multi-point games among active NHL players

5. Connor McDavid 

McDavid has 356 multi-point outings in 763 career games. He has notched at least two points in about 47% of the games he’s played. That’s 10 percentage points higher than Sidney Crosby.

Only Mario Lemieux (54%) and Wayne Gretzky (55%) scored two or more points at a higher rate than No. 97. 

The Oilers captain also has the most multi-point games in a season among active players, reaching 45 twice.

4. Patrick Kane

Patrick Kane, the highest-scoring active American player, has 362 multi-point outings in 1,337 games. While he doesn’t rack up multi-point games as he did during his glory days with the Chicago Blackhawks, Kane has amassed at least two points at a 27% clip.

Unlike McDavid, you don’t have to worry too much about Kane’s stat changing quickly, as he has eight multi-point games this season and just one in the previous 11 matches. 

Kane’s career best of 31 multi-point games occurred in 2018-19. 

3. Evgeni Malkin

Evgeni Malkin only trails Crosby and Lemieux on the Pittsburgh Penguins’ multi-point outings chart, with 369 in 1,246 games.

He scores at least two points in about 30% of the games he plays. His most multi-point games in a season was 32 in 2008-09, when he also secured a career-high 113 points. 

Malkin got off to a prolific start this season, securing six multi-point outings in the opening 10 games. However, he has just three in the 23 games since. 

2. Alex Ovechkin

The second Russian on this list, Alex Ovechkin, sits 11th all-time in multi-point outings, with 463. He’s seven behind 10th-place Ron Francis.

Having played 1,541 games, Ovechkin gets at least two points in about 30% of his games. He accumulated the most multi-point outings during the 2009-10 season (35) despite playing only 72 games. 

While slowing down is a byproduct of the aging process, the 40-year-old continues to play at a remarkably high level. He has 12 multi-point outings in 2025-26.

1. Sidney Crosby 

Crosby is fifth all-time for players with the most multi-point games. No. 87 has 512 multi-point outings in 1,400 games and sits behind Mark Messier (513), Marcel Dionne (513), Jaromir Jagr (540) and Gretzky (824).

The Penguins’ captain secures multi-point outings at a roughly 37% clip, and his best season came in 2006-07, when he finished with 38 multi-point outings in 79 games. 

He has 19 in 48 games so far this season, equating to a 40% rate.

The Milwaukee Brewers have traded pitcher Freddy Peralta to the New York Mets for a pair of top prospects.

The addition of Peralta adds an ace to the Mets’ pitching rotation and the move is expected to help keep New York competitive in the National League East, after finishing 13 games behind the Philadelphia Phillies for the top spot in the division in 2025.

The Mets’ pitching staff showed early signs of dominance in 2025, leading the league with a 2.32 ERA … before the team collapsed in the second half and missed the postseason with an 83-79 record.

The team finished out the final 92 games with a 38-54 record. Kodai Senga dealt with injuries, which limited his availability. Clay Holmes made the transition to a starter after spending time coming out of the bullpen.

Here’s grades for the Freddy Peralta deal:

Freddy Peralta trade grades:

Mets

The trade provides not only another big name to the roster − Peralta was a 2025 All-Star and is held in high regard for his fastball and his strikeout ability. The 29-year-old Dominican pitcher has reached over 200 strikeouts and over 30 starts in three consecutive seasons.

The Mets also received pitcher Tobias Myers in the deal.

Grade: A

Brewers

The Brewers added two of the Mets’ top prospects to their system. 

Jett Williams was the 14th overall pick in the 2022 MLB Draft, having spent the past four seasons playing at various levels of the minor leagues. He has not yet played at the major league level. Williams, who was ranked as the Mets’ No. 3 prospect by MLB.com, has shown the ability to play multiple positions, including shortstop, second base and outfield.

Brandon Sproat obviously doesn’t have the level of experience that was lost by sending Peralta away, but he’s a highly-regarded pitching prospect (ranked as the Mets’ No. 5 prospect, per MLB.com). Sproat has played in four major league games for the Mets. He has an 0-2 record.

Grade: B-