Is 'the expiration date' coming for the 49ers?
Mike Florio and Michael Holley unpack the reports that 49ers George Kittle may return ahead of schedule from Achilles injury. They also take a deep dive into the injury history of the 49ers roster.
Video Transcript
There was another game last night, Chargers/49ers.
Starters played sparingly.
No significant news to talk about out of that one.
But the momentum, and this was shefty at halftime of the Raiders-Texans game, momentum is pointing toward George Kittle being ready to go week one, despite the torn Achilles last year.
But like so many of these older 49ers players, when you get cleared to play, all it really means is you've been cleared to set yourself up for your next inevitable injury.
I don't mean to put the malochio on anyone, but at the same time, we've seen this time and again, and we've already seen a bunch of 49ers get injured, and I hope George Kittle waits until he truly is 100%, because we know with the, the way they play, they have no fear, they have no regard for their own wellbeing, they find themselves in a spot, it feels like inevitably that they're injured again.
But it looks like he'll be on track to go week one in Australia against the Rams.
Yeah, that's a tough injury to come back from, Mike.
I, I wish George Kittle the best.
And you wonder what you'll see from him.
Now, the, the great thing about Kittle is he's one of those rare, receiving tight ends Like, a lot of them are just big receivers and they have very little interest in blocking.
He's a devastating blocker, too.
Great in the run game, great in the receiving game.
And so if s- if Kittle comes back and he's not as explosive as a receiver, he's still gonna help you in some way.
He's just a complete tight end.
But I do wonder, I do wonder about him and, a lot of his teammates, 'cause this has just been a banged up team the last few years.
Some of the star players with these tough injuries, whether it's Fred Warner or McCaffrey's had his share of injuries, Deebo, is back with them.
He's been in, in and out of the lineup.
Kittle, and they just got so many guys who have big names and, and great resumes, but you just wonder how much they have left.
It, it feels like we're pretty much at the end with this group.
It Maybe a year?
A year or two left with this, this 49ers core before they have to do something else.
So yeah, I wish them the best.
You just, just don't know, did they, did they blow it?
Did they blow it?
Did they, they had a couple of opportunities, you know, leads in two Super Bowls, and that was it.
And, you know, 10-point lead in the Super Bowl against Mahomes the first time he went, and they lost that one.
And then against Mahomes again, and they lose that one.
You know, that, that may have been it for this, 49ers core.
And Michael, we were talking about this earlier in the week, the fact that they continue to be contenders with this aging roster, that they haven't dramatically retooled, I think it's delaying the retooling, and there's going to be a point where they just have to do a massive overhaul and not hang on to this guy one more year because maybe we can get over the hump.
Hang on to this guy one more year because maybe we can get over the hump.
It was two years ago that George Kittle said, "This may be our last ride."
They're still, for the most part, other than the quarterback position, it's gone from Jimmy Garoppolo to Brock Purdy, but this feels like a team that's had its soul constructed away from the quarterback position, the George Kittles of the world, the Nick Bosas, the Fred Warners, the Dre Greenlaws, and it just feels like the expiration date is coming for all of them.
