{"id":873486,"date":"2026-08-30T05:28:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-30T05:28:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/873486\/"},"modified":"2026-08-30T05:28:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-30T05:28:10","slug":"kyle-shanahan-vaguely-suggests-george-kittle-has-taken-a-step-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/873486\/","title":{"rendered":"Kyle Shanahan vaguely suggests George Kittle has &#8220;taken a step back&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>When 49ers tight end George Kittle <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcsports.com\/nfl\/profootballtalk\/rumor-mill\/news\/49ers-activate-george-kittle-from-pup-list\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">recently emerged<\/a> from the active\/physically unable to perform list, many assumed it meant he\u2019d be available to play in the Week 1 game against the Rams in Australia.<\/p>\n<p>After the recent preseason finale, however, coach Kyle Shanahan made a comment that could be interpreted as meaning Kittle has had a setback in his recovery from a torn Achilles tendon.<\/p>\n<p>While discussing whether various injured players will be available for the season-opening game, Shanahan mentioned Kittle\u2019s name, adding this: \u201c<a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/rP3KUdBXvR8?si=Zwt3XAEwpDHVdPy1&amp;t=250\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">who\u2019s taken a step back<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It happened quickly. The comment was made almost in passing. There was no further explanation.<\/p>\n<p>Did Shanahan mean Kittle has had a setback? Did it mean he has taken a step back toward playing?<\/p>\n<p>Whatever Shanahan meant, it will surely be one of the main topics the next time Shanahan meets with reporters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When 49ers tight end George Kittle recently emerged from the active\/physically unable to perform list, many assumed it&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":873487,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[559],"tags":[64,63,593,85],"class_list":["post-873486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=873486"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873486\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/873487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=873486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=873486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=873486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}