The opening night of the NFL season has already seen Travis Kelce already ruled out and missing the kickoff on Thursday Night Football. Now, George Kittle is entering the opening weekend with a questionable injury status.
Let’s take a look at Kittle’s latest injury news, whether or not he is expected to play today, and his fantasy football value this week.
Latest News Surrounding George Kittle
Kittle’s long-standing groin issue made him miss the first two games last season and carried on through the season and the offseason. After missing out on practice all last week, he logged limited practices on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday this week.
After practice on Thursday, Kittle said he felt “wonderful” and that he was “excited to play football on Sunday.” He is officially listed as questionable going into Week 1.
However, Ian Rapoport of NFL Network reported this morning that Kittle “is expected to play today.”
Will Kittle Play This Week?
It appears very likely that Kittle will play this week. His words aside, the fact he hasn’t missed a practice session this week suggests that he is likely to start and that the 49ers are just ensuring he makes the start on Sunday.
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It would take a setback during the warmups for him to miss the game. As already mentioned, he has managed this issue for over a season and played through it for most of that time. Last season, Kittle managed 60 receptions for 765 yards and a career-high 11 touchdowns in 15 games.
What Does This Mean for Kittle’s Fantasy Ranking?
For the rest of this article, we will work on the assumption that Kittle is active for Week 1. In the PFN Consensus Rankings, Kittle is currently ranked at TE4 and the 43rd-ranked player overall.
This week, Kittle faces the Pittsburgh Steelers, who ranked 13th-best against tight ends in 2022. They only conceded five touchdowns to tight ends in 2022, with two of those being scored by David Njoku.
After a slow start in 2022, missing the opening two games due to a similar groin injury, and then recording two 20th-place finishes and one 37th-place finish in Weeks 3-5, Kittle recorded six top-five PPR finishes in his remaining 12 games. In that time, five of those finishes were top three in PPR scoring, and two were TE1 overall for the week.
While the Steelers’ defense can be stingy giving up touchdowns to tight ends, Kittle has proven in his NFL career he is an elite tight end option. If he is good to start today, season-long fantasy managers must start Kittle on Sunday, as he is too good to leave out of your lineup and too effective.
The PFN Start/Sit Optimizer projects Kittle to total 10.7 PPR points this week.
However, if you are playing DFS, then with the niggling injury, it might be a smart play to fade Kittle and look at some cheaper options at the tight end position, especially considering Mark Andrews and Darren Waller are also questionable going into the Sunday slate. Players like Isaiah Likely and Luke Musgrave look to be bargains on the slate this week and well worth consideration.