San Francisco 49ers general manger John Lynch joined KNBR today and provided a bit of an update on the team's injured tight end, George Kittle. There had been hope that Kittle might be available for this past weekend's game against the Arizona Cardinals. However, the 49ers ended up putting their star tight end on injured reserve the day before kickoff.
That means Kittle will have to miss three games. The first was this past Sunday's game. He will also have to sit out the matchups against the Indianapolis Colts and Chicago Bears. Kittle will be eligible to return on November 7 when the 49ers host the Arizona Cardinals.
While there is always the possibility of a setback, Lynch feels optimistic that Kittle will be back for that Week 9 contest.
"That was a really tough decision because he was close to playing versus Arizona," Lynch said on the Tolbert, Krueger & Brooks show. "But I think at the end of the day, there was a frustration level on George's behalf, which is right. Like, 'Listen, I can keep not practicing and trying to play, but it feels like I've got a knife dug in my calf there.'
"So, at some point, you have to make a decision. And we were very careful to make sure he wasn't in jeopardy of a major injury or anything, but ... that wasn't sustainable, continuing to do that, and we're not going to have George Kittle.
"I would submit to you that George Kittle at 80 percent is better than most at 100 but you have to do right by George and our team. By giving him the opportunity -- we felt like, with the bye week, this gave the opportunity to kind of knock this thing out for the year.
"Do we know that's going to happen with it this time? No. But we have a lot of opinions that it is ample time for that to happen. So, we're very hopeful that's the case, and after the Chicago game, I believe for the next Arizona game, we'll have him at full strength."
You can listen to the entire conversation with Lynch below.
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