The San Francisco 49ers are heading to Australia for their Week 1 game against the Los Angeles Rams. Moreover, the major news is that the Niners expect Nick Bosa and George Kittle to play.
Kittle is coming off a torn Achilles tendon that he suffered in the playoffs last season. Meanwhile, Bosa is coming off a torn ACL he suffered last year and has dealt with tendinitis throughout training camp and the preseason.
Nonetheless, both players appear ready to help San Francisco try to get off on the right foot with a win. As a result of this expectation, The Ringer’s NFL insider Tom Pelissero shared that he believes the Niners will handle both players if they do, in fact, play.
“George Kittle has been pushing this timeline all along through this entire offseason,” Pelissero said during a Sept. 2 appearance on 95.7 The Game. “He wanted to be back Week 1. He has said he intended to play Week 1, and it seems like he is now tracking to do exactly that.
“With Nick Bosa, he missed a good chunk of time, a couple of weeks, in training camp, continuing to deal with things. He’s coming off a major knee surgery. I would anticipate, especially with the travel and the time change, we all know if you’ve got different injuries, things swell up, you have to loosen things.
“The last thing the 49ers want to do in a 17-game schedule, plus they hope for a deep playoff run, is have these guys suffer some type of setback where now it’s impacted them through the rest of the season. So I would imagine from a snap count perspective, they’ll be very cautious about how much they’re putting on these guys’ plates.”
49ers Aren’t Worried, But Could Be Cautious
Furthermore, another reason the 49ers will be playing it cautious is the number of injuries the team has dealt with over the last year. Even before the 2026 NFL season began, the Niners were hit by the injury bug, with Ricky Pearsall having a season-ending injury.
“We had an injury discussion the other day, and there are like three Rams names and 13 49ers names,” Pelissero added. “This is kind of the story of it, too often for the 49ers through the course of time. But outside of the Ricky Pearsall situation, none of these seem like these long-term types.
“I know that every 49ers fan kind of has the PTSD and is gearing up for this to be a problem, but I don’t get the sense that there are big concerns so much as, all right, September football is one thing, a game in Australia is one thing. We got to make sure that we’re keeping these guys on course through the course of the season, and I imagine that they’ll be conservative in their approach.”
Should George Kittle Be Playing Week 1?
Although it looks like Kittle will be suiting up for Week 1, Grant Cohn of 49ers on SI recently wrote that he believes that San Francisco should be keeping him out of this game to protect the player from himself.
“Kittle’s recovery won’t be linear,” Cohn wrote in an Aug. 29 article. “Some days, he’ll feel better than others. And he’s way ahead of schedule as is. The 49ers should treat him with an abundance of caution. He’s too important in December and January to risk his season in early September when he’s less than a year removed from an Achilles tear.
“No matter how good Kittle says he feels, the 49ers should leave him home for the season opener and play the Rams in Australia without him. If they lose, that would be better than losing Kittle to a serious setback that could knock him out for months, if not longer.”
49ers Get Candid Statement on George Kittle, Nick Bosa for Week 1