After suffering an achilles tear in the playoffs last season, George Kittle amazingly has a real possibility to play in the 49ers opener against the Rams per Ian Rapoport of NFL Network. The team will gather more information over the next couple of days before knowing for sure.
2026 Fantasy Football Impact: Week 1 Comes With Risk
Kittle returning to play and Kittle returning to meaningful production are two separate things. But the former becoming a reality is a huge step toward the latter.
Unfortunately, the other hurdle for Kittle to overcome is that his production has been trending in the opposite direction of his age.
Kittle is coming off the lowest target share since his rookie season and his third-lowest yards per team pass attempt of his career.
Although Kittle has one of the best fantasy resumes of all time for a TE, with seven seasons of at least 15.0 PPR points per game, it’s difficult to fully count him out as a top producer at the position again.
But even if it’s announced in the next few days that Kittle is playing next week, he’d be one of the riskiest week 1 starts.
