{"id":645168,"date":"2026-01-01T08:54:21","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T08:54:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/645168\/"},"modified":"2026-01-01T08:54:21","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T08:54:21","slug":"george-kittle-absolutely-expects-to-play-in-49ers-vs-seahawks-nbc-sports-bay-area-california","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/645168\/","title":{"rendered":"George Kittle \u2018absolutely\u2019 expects to play in 49ers\u2019 vs. Seahawks \u2013 NBC Sports Bay Area & California"},"content":{"rendered":"

SANTA CLARA \u2014 George Kittle<\/a> is set to return to the field in the 49ers’ regular-season finale against the Seattle Seahawks, after missing San Francisco’s Week 17 win<\/a> over the Chicago Bears.<\/p>\n

\u201cAbsolutely,\u201d Kittle said enthusiastically when asked if he planned to play on Saturday night at Levi’s Stadium.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The All-Pro tight end played his best statistical game in Indianapolis in Week 16, hauling in seven of his eight targets for 115 yards and a touchdown before exiting the game early with an ankle injury<\/a>. The week off was enough to help Kittle return to playing shape<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cFabulous,\u201d Kittle said when asked how he was feeling. \u201cGreat position for Saturday night to punch a one seed. So just with that, I’m doing fantastic.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Kittle referenced, the winner of Saturday night\u2019s divisional clash will clinch the NFC’s No. 1 seed and a first-round bye. The additional time off would not only help players recover before their first postseason game but also could give players like Trent Williams<\/a> more time to get healthy before starting their playoff run.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Williams, who suffered a hamstring injury on the first offensive play of the 49ers’ Week 17 win, likely won’t play in the Saturday night<\/a> showdown after missing practice on both Tuesday and Wednesday. But the left tackle still has a slight chance to suit up. The extra week off would be highly beneficial for a postseason return.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Keion White<\/a>, who injured his groin against the Bears, also could miss the 49ers’ regular-season finale. The defensive lineman has not returned to practice yet this week.\u00a0<\/p>\n

More positive news regarding Ricky Pearsall<\/a>, who scared everyone when he landed awkwardly on his knee in the Week 17 win,\u00a0aggravating the PCL injury he suffered earlier in the season. The talented wideout even wore a brace on his injured knee during the game to prevent further injury.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Both Kyle Juszczyk<\/a> and Christian McCaffrey<\/a> are trending in the right direction to be available to play on Saturday night, returning to limited participation on Wednesday after sitting out the first practice of the week on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

49ers’ practice report<\/p>\n

Did Not Participate\u00a0<\/p>\n

LT Trent Williams (hamstring)\u00a0<\/p>\n

DL Keion White (groin)\u00a0<\/p>\n

Limited Participation\u00a0<\/p>\n

TE George Kittle (ankle)\u00a0<\/p>\n

FB Kyle Juszczyk (hip)<\/p>\n

RB Christian McCaffrey (back)\u00a0<\/p>\n

DL Yetur Gross-Matos (hamstring)\u00a0<\/p>\n

TE George Kittle (ankle)\u00a0<\/p>\n

CB Upton Stout (concussion)<\/p>\n

Full Participation<\/p>\n

DB Renardo Green (neck)<\/p>\n

Seattle practice report<\/p>\n

Did Not Participate<\/p>\n

S Coby Bryant (knee)\u00a0<\/p>\n

T Charles Cross (hamstring)\u00a0<\/p>\n

T Josh Jones (ankle, knee)\u00a0<\/p>\n

Limited participation<\/p>\n

WR Jaxon Smith-Njigba (rest)<\/p>\n

DE Leonard Williams (rest)<\/p>\n

LB Demarcus Lawrence (rest)\u00a0<\/p>\n

Full Participation<\/p>\n

TE AJ Barner (elbow, hip)<\/p>\n

LB Derick Hall (hand)<\/p>\n

CB Josh Jobe (wrist)\u00a0<\/p>\n

T Abraham Lucas (neck)<\/p>\n

S Ty Okada (oblique, knee)\u00a0<\/p>\n

WR Rashid Shaheed (concussion)\u00a0<\/p>\n

Download and follow the 49ers Talk Podcast<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SANTA CLARA \u2014 George Kittle is set to return to the field in the 49ers’ regular-season finale against…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":645169,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2081],"tags":[7,6066,6,238,237,261,2635],"class_list":{"0":"post-645168","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-seattle-seahawks","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-george-kittle","10":"tag-nfl","11":"tag-seahawks","12":"tag-seattle","13":"tag-seattle-seahawks","14":"tag-seattleseahawks"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115819005784457925","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=645168"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645168\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/645169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=645168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=645168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=645168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}