49ers GM John Lynch Provides Update on George Kittle's Achilles Recovery

The San Francisco 49ers have bolstered their receiving corps by signing former Tampa Bay Buccaneers veteran wide receiver Mike Evans in free agency and selecting Ole Miss wide receiver De’Zhaun Stribling in the second round (No. 33 overall) of the 2026 NFL Draft on Friday night.

Both moves could easily be attributed to the 49ers replacing estranged receiver Brandon Aiyuk and adding depth at a suddenly thin position. But a convenient byproduct is that there’s less pressure on All-Pro tight end George Kittle to rush his recovery from a torn Achilles.

Apparently, Kittle should be back in the fold sooner than later anyway.

“He’s going to be ready at some point, if not for the first game,” 49ers general manager John Lynch said on NFL Network on Saturday, per Ian Rapoport.

Kittle, 32, tore his Achilles in the second quarter of the 49ers’ 23-19 win over the Philadelphia Eagles in the NFC Wild Card round on Jan. 11. San Francisco’s season ended at the hands of the eventual champion Seattle Seahawks the following weekend.

As the 49ers cleaned out their lockers on Jan. 19, Kittle told reporters he could return to action “well before November” and provided a nuanced update on his Achilles surgery performed by Dr. Neal ElAttrache.

“Surgery went really, really good,” Kittle said, per ESPN’s Nick Wagoner. “[ElAttrache] said the best-case scenario when you tear an Achilles is that you tear it up high by your soleus, which is what I did. I had a clean tear. They didn’t have to drill into my heel. And where the repair was, there’s more blood flow. And so it takes some time off of the recovery time.”

In February, The Athletic’s Matt Barrows wrote that Kittle was “aiming to be back by Week 1.”

Before tearing his Achilles, Kittle was also limited by a hamstring injury in September and an ankle sprain suffered in late December. When healthy, he showed he’s still quarterback Brock Purdy’s most reliable target, and there’s no reason to believe that won’t continue in 2026 if he can return to pre-injury form.

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This story was originally published April 25, 2026 at 9:25 PM.