George Kittle activated off PUP list, will he be able to bounce back quickly?
Yahoo Sports Daily hosts Caroline Fenton and Jason Fitz discuss George Kittle being activated off the PUP list. Will Kittle return to form or will it take some time for him to ramp up? Watch the full episode of Yahoo Sports Daily on YouTube or YahooSports.TV .
Video Transcript
I remember when a torn Achilles was you miss a year, and then the next calendar year- Yeah you're not very good.
So it was like a two-year injury.
Now we got K- Kittle nine months after being like, "Yeah, nah, get me out there.
I wanna be on the field."
I, I'm stunned by this recovery timeline.
It's absolutely crazy and a testament to modern medicine.
It's same thing with ACL tears.
I remember a time when a torn ACL could've ended your career.
Now- Facts at this point it's like, "All right, I'll be back in, like, eight months."
Of course, it's devastating, and of course, it's terrible for that respective player, but i- we kind of view it as, eh, well, he- he'll be back next year.
No, no biggie.
We kind of view it almost as, like, a, a pinky nail, you know, hang nail at this point in the NFL.
So really cool to see how shortened these recovery timelines are, especially at, at George Kittle's age.
He's not a spring chicken.
So this is huge news for the San Francisco 49ers.
We also saw Christian McCaffrey back at practice over the weekend as well, so two major developments.
We've talked a lot about the ceiling and the floor for this 49ers team.
Because last year they were as injured, knock on wood, as a, a football team could possibly be.
We saw Brock Purdy on the sidelines at some point.
Nick Bosa and Fred Warner both had season-ending injuries.
George Kittle had the torn Achilles.
I mean, the list went on and on and on and on.
But if this team is fully healthy, and you can see those core pieces of this team, whether it's George Kittle himself, Christian McCaffrey, par- pieces of the defense, now Mike Evans, if they can stay healthy for the majority of a 17-game season, the ceiling for this, this team is Super Bowl.
They have the coaching.
They have the talent.
They have the experience.
This is a Super Bowl upside kind of team.
But we know with the 49ers, at least in recent history, expecting all of them to be healthy for the better part of a 17-game season is probably not a very safe bet.
But if they are, this 49ers team, I think they, they are Super Bowl contenders.
So getting those two back I think is massive.
