The San Francisco 49ers have activated 7x Pro Bowl tight end George Kittle off the physically unable to perform list on Sunday, opening the door for him to be available in Week 1.
Kittle torn the Achilles tendon in his right foot in January, but has long maintained that he plans to be ready for Week 1 action this season. His activation means he can resume practicing with the team as they prepare to kick off their 2026 NFL season on September 10th against the Los Angeles Rams in Melbourne, Australia.
The 32 year old is coming off yet another productive, albeit injury riddle, season in 2025, recording 57 catches for 628 yards and 7 TDs across 11 games. His streak of 5 straight Pro Bowl selections continued, though he fell short of posting his third straight 1,000+ yard campaign.
San Francisco will be returning most of their starters on offence, though the team has made a few notable changes on that side of the ball. Former Tampa Bay Buccaneer Mike Evans signed a 3 year, $42.4M contract to join the team, while former 49er Deebo Samuel inked a 1 year pact of his own to return to his former club.
After spending 4 years with the Dolphins, guard Robert Jones figures to slide in at LG along the offensive line, while 2026 second rounder Deshaun Stribling out of Ole Miss figures to get some looks at wide receiver. Outside of those changes, it should be a fairly similar roster to what Kittle saw last season, which was good enough to get San Francisco to the divisional round of the playoffs before bowing out to the eventual champions in Seattle.
The veteran heavy Niners (28th youngest projected 53 man roster in the league) will once again face a daunting task in the NFC West with the Rams and Seahawks both loaded up for deep playoff runs of their own. However, the biggest obstacle to their overall success could once again be the injury bug.
Only the Dolphins, Lions, and Cardinals had more man-games missed as a result of injuries than San Francisco had in 2025, with the 49ers being the only one of those clubs to make the postseason. When healthy, San Francisco can compete with the best of them, but if they face another season like the one they had last year, they could be in for some tough sledding this fall.
Getting Kittle back up to game speed will be a major addition to a roster that has championship aspirations in 2026.
Photo: Erik Drost. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.