{"id":744050,"date":"2026-02-11T04:33:19","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T04:33:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/744050\/"},"modified":"2026-02-11T04:33:19","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T04:33:19","slug":"49ers-insider-george-kittle-aiming-for-week-1-return-after-achilles-injury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/744050\/","title":{"rendered":"49ers insider: George Kittle aiming for Week 1 return after Achilles injury"},"content":{"rendered":"

San Francisco 49ers tight end George Kittle<\/a>‘s recovery may not be as long as initially believed.<\/p>\n

Kittle suffered a torn Achilles tendon on January 11 during the 49ers’ Wild Card victory over the Philadelphia Eagles. In the week leading up to Super Bowl LX, he was seen using a motorized scooter, fueling speculation about his recovery timeline.<\/p>\n

Early projections suggested Kittle could miss most of next season. However, 49ers insider Matt Barrows of The Athletic offered a more optimistic outlook this week.<\/p>\n

“I don’t think Kittle’s Achilles tendon tear will keep him out for all of or even most of next season,” Barrows wrote in a recent mailbag article<\/a>. “In fact, he’s aiming to be back by Week 1 (though that seems less likely if the team opens the season with a 16-hour flight to Australia).”<\/p>\n

The 49ers are scheduled to face the Los Angeles Rams in the NFL’s first regular-season game in Melbourne, Australia, at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), creating an added travel challenge for the team.<\/p>\n

After the injury, Kittle said, “They didn’t have to drill into my heel<\/a>. Where the repair was is where there’s more blood flow. And so, it takes some time off the recovery.”<\/p>\n

During that conversation, Kittle suggested that a Week 1 return was not out of the question.<\/p>\n

Kittle provided another recovery update<\/a> last week during an appearance on The Pat McAfee Show, detailing his rehabilitation progress while commenting on the motorized scooter that helps him get around.<\/p>\n

“I’m literally only in this when I’m outside of my house,” Kittle said. “The nice thing, too, is my trainers are coming to me right now, which is really convenient. But I do a whole bunch of iso-holds, ankle stuff. Basically, I have like a three-inch heel lift in my boot right now, so I can stand up on this right now and just kind of hang out.<\/p>\n

“But walking, we’re not doing that yet. I’ll be in a shoe next week, and I’ll be back and forth between a shoe and a boot. And then, I’m on crutches for like another two to three, four weeks, and then, I’m rolling again.”<\/p>\n

While the timeline remains fluid, Kittle’s comments suggest steady progress in his recovery. Barrows’ projection that the All-Pro tight end could return early in the 2026 season offers added optimism for the 49ers.<\/p>\n

Kittle is entering his 10th NFL season. Sidelined for part of 2025 with a hamstring injury, he appeared in 11 regular-season games, recording 57 receptions for 628 yards and seven touchdowns.<\/p>\n

If Kittle can return closer to the start of the 2026 season, it would provide a significant boost for the 49ers, who are looking to build on their 12-5 campaign.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"San Francisco 49ers tight end George Kittle‘s recovery may not be as long as initially believed. Kittle suffered…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":744051,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2080],"tags":[220,7,6066,6,1161,252,2624,2623],"class_list":{"0":"post-744050","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-francisco-49ers","8":"tag-49ers","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-george-kittle","11":"tag-nfl","12":"tag-san-francisco","13":"tag-san-francisco-49ers","14":"tag-sanfrancisco","15":"tag-sanfrancisco49ers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116050133722661191","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/744050","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=744050"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/744050\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/744051"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=744050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=744050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=744050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}