George Kittle’s knee sprain is likely going to keep him out of practice all week as the 49ers gear up for their Week 2 showdown with the New York Jets. Typically players who miss an entire week of practice won’t play in that week’s game. With Kittle it’s a different story.
The severity of the sprain isn’t known, but he did return Sunday after a hit from Cardinals safety Budda Baker and played the entire second half.
His week of practice won’t matter if he’s able to suit up Sunday according to head coach Kyle Shanahan.
“Yeah, Kittle, he’s battling. We thought it’d be all right, woke up the next day a little sore. He fully expects to be there Sunday like he always does,” Shanahan said. “Just like he always plays through the game when it happens, but we’ll give him the whole week. Always love to get them out there on Friday. We’ll see how that goes. Friday’s just a walkthrough anyways, but Kittle is one guy that if he’s ready to go on Sunday and the doctors say he’s good to go, we have no problem with him going without practicing.”
Kittle was hurt on the first play of last year’s Week 9 matchup with the Cardinals in Arizona. In that case he popped a capsule in his knee and chipped a bone in his ankle. He played almost the entire game, but missed the next two.
San Francisco is already down one of their offensive weapons in Deebo Samuel, so losing Kittle would be a significant blow. While the 49ers won’t risk his long-term health to have him in the lineup, they’ll make every effort to ensure he’s ready to go by 10:00am Pacific Time on Sunday, even if it means him not setting foot on the practice field.
One option available for the 49ers if Kittle doesn’t play is Jordan Reed. He only played 10 snaps in the season opener because the team is easing him into work after he had a truncated training camp.
Shanahan said there’s a possibility Reed gets more action if Kittle or another tight is unavailable.
“Jordan’s coming along as planned,” Shanahan said. “He got a late start to camp. We put him in very slowly and that was with some of his injuries that he had from the past. We planned to play him like we did there in the game and we’ll see if he gets a little bit more playing time if there’s less tight ends up.”