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The 49ers Don't Expect George Kittle to Play Against the Seahawks

The 49ers most likely won't have their All Pro tight end this afternoon.

Grant Cohn

Oct 10, 2024; Seattle, Washington, USA; San Francisco 49ers tight end George Kittle (85) during warmups before the game against the Seattle Seahawks at Lumen Field. Mandatory Credit: Steven Bisig-Imagn Images
Oct 10, 2024; Seattle, Washington, USA; San Francisco 49ers tight end George Kittle (85) during warmups before the game against the Seattle Seahawks at Lumen Field. Mandatory Credit: Steven Bisig-Imagn Images / Steven Bisig-Imagn Images
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The 49ers most likely won't have their All Pro tight end this afternoon.

George Kittle is expected to miss Sunday's game against the Seahawks with a hamstring injury according to ESPN's Adam Schefter. Kittle injured his hamstring last Sunday against the Buccaneers but didn't leave the game. Still, he was targeted just four times which could indicate that he was dealing with the injury during the game.

If Kittle indeed doesn't play, his absence will be significant. Because through the first half of the season, he essentially has been the 49ers' red-zone offense. Without him, the 49ers will have to find new ways to score touchdowns.

Kittle isn't quite the blocker he was when he was younger, but he's having arguably his best season yet as a receiver. He has 43 catches for 560 yards and 7 touchdowns. He's the 49ers' oldest and best weapon in the passing game. And he doesn't usually miss games, but he has been injured on and off for most of the season.

Last season, Kittle missed no games due to injury despite playing through a sports hernia which required offseason surgery. That procedure could explain why Kittle is playing so well this season.

But it also could explain his nagging hamstring injuries. After the surgery, he lost 30 pounds and then quickly put the weight back on before OTAs. That process may have taken a toll on his legs. Because he missed Week 3 with a hamstring injury, too.

The 49ers expect Kittle back next week against the Packers. Let's see how they manage him the rest of the season.

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Grant Cohn
GRANT COHN

Grant Cohn has covered the San Francisco 49ers daily since 2011. He spent the first nine years of his career with the Santa Rosa Press Democrat where he wrote the Inside the 49ers blog and covered famous coaches and athletes such as Jim Harbaugh, Colin Kaepernick and Patrick Willis. In 2012, Inside the 49ers won Sports Blog of the Year from the Peninsula Press Club. In 2020, Cohn joined FanNation and began writing All49ers. In addition, he created a YouTube channel which has become the go-to place on YouTube to consume 49ers content. Cohn's channel typically generates roughly 3.5 million viewers per month, while the 49ers' official YouTube channel generates roughly 1.5 million viewers per month. Cohn live streams almost every day and posts videos hourly during the football season. Cohn is committed to asking the questions that 49ers fans want answered, and providing the most honest and interactive coverage in the country. His loyalty is to the reader and the viewer, not the team or any player or coach. Cohn is a new-age multimedia journalist with an old-school mentality, because his father is Lowell Cohn, the legendary sports columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1979 to 1993. The two have a live podcast every Tuesday. Grant Cohn grew up in Oakland and studied English Literature at UCLA from 2006 to 2010. He currently lives in Oakland with his wife.

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