The Niners have waived Jake Moody, which doesn't change the fantasy landscape much (he was always presumed to have a short leash). The bigger news is tight end George Kittle landing on IR with a hamstring injury.
Kittle will now miss the next four games, and landing on IR makes it seem iffy whether he'll be healthy even after that (clearly they think there's no chance it will be less than that). Ironic that while we were all worrying about Christian McCaffrey's status, a teammate who also has some injury concerns is the one who winds up on IR.
The worst of Kittle's injury ailments were early in his career, with him missing 11 games his first four seasons, including half of 2020. As he's gotten older, he's been more durable, playing in at least 14 games in each of the last four seasons. But that still works out to 8 missed games. Has there been a viable replacement?
The short answer is no. San Francisco, using Ross Dwelley, Charlie Woerner and Eric Saubert in those games, has not had a quality fill-in when Kittle is sidelined.
Here's how San Francisco's top tight end has performed when Kittle was out over the past four seasons.
| NINERS WITHOUT KITTLE, 2021-2024 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Player | Opp | Tgt | No | Rec | TD |
| 2021 | Dwelley | at Ari. | 2 | 2 | 25 | 0 |
| 2021 | Woerner | Ind. | 2 | 2 | 30 | 0 |
| 2021 | Woerner | at Chi. | 2 | 1 | 7 | 0 |
| 2022 | Dwelley | at Chi. | 2 | 1 | 11 | 0 |
| 2022 | Dwelley | Sea. | 1 | 1 | 38 | 1 |
| 2023 | Woerner | LAR | 1 | 1 | 20 | 0 |
| 2024 | Saubert | at LAR | 2 | 2 | 41 | 0 |
| 2024 | Saubert | Sea. | 1 | 1 | 7 | 0 |
None of those guys saw more than 2 targets in a game, and only one touchdown from the lot of them.
The counter argument would be that last week, Jake Tonges caught the winning touchdown against Seattle. And it was a legitimately impressive grab, a ball that could easily have been intercepted, but Tonges came back to take the ball away from a defender. He caught 2 other passes in the game, which makes him more productive than all previous Kittle fill-ins.
But those were the first receptions of his career, undrafted back in 2022. He's not necessarily in line for many looks this week, since another tight end, Luke Farrell, actually played a little more, catching 1 pass.
In short, nobody should be burning a wavier claim on either player with the idea they're getting Kittle-lite. Maybe a couple of catches, tops, is what to expect from either player in a game.
(At this writing, by the way, San Francisco has not yet signed a kicker to replace Moody. And they also might not have Brock Purdy, who has shoulder and toe ailments, this week; Mac Jones might need to start. But they're 1-0, which is something.)
--Andy Richardson