{"id":151214,"date":"2026-01-27T06:54:25","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T06:54:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/151214\/"},"modified":"2026-01-27T06:54:25","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T06:54:25","slug":"49ers-to-draft-george-kittle-replacement-per-daniel-jeremiah-nbc-sports-bay-area-california","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/151214\/","title":{"rendered":"49ers to draft George Kittle replacement, per Daniel Jeremiah \u2013 NBC Sports Bay Area & California"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the wake of\u00a0George Kittle suffering\u00a0a torn Achilles in the playoffs<\/a>, the 49ers might need some help at the\u00a0tight end\u00a0position in case\u00a0the star is not ready to make his return for the\u00a0start\u00a0of\u00a0the season.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Which is why NFL.com’s Daniel Jeremiah has the 49ers selecting a possible replacement with the No. 27 pick in his first 2026 NFL mock draft<\/a>.<\/p>\n

27. TE, Kenyon Sadiq, Oregon<\/p>\n

\u201cSadiq could go much higher than 27th overall,\u201d Jeremiah wrote. \u201cHe\u2019s\u00a0undersized, but he has outstanding speed and is a competitive blocker. He would be [the] ultimate chess piece for Kyle Shanahan, giving the coach a hybrid of George Kittle and\u00a0Kyle Juszczyk<\/a>.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the 2025 season, the junior tight end notched a team-high 51 receptions for 560 receiving yard\u00a0in 14 games played.\u00a0He led\u00a0all collegiate tight ends\u00a0with\u00a0eight receiving\u00a0touchdowns.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sadiq was a John Mackey Award finalist, which is presented annually to the most outstanding collegiate tight end in the nation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

ESPN\u2019s Mel Kiper Jr. predicts<\/a>\u00a0Sadiq will be drafted No. 15 overall by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sadiq\u2019s listed height and weight is 6-foot-3 and 245 pounds, which might be undersized for a tight end position, but is close to Kittle\u2019s 6-foot-4 and 250-pound frame.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Although Kittle\u2019s injury recovery appears daunting,\u00a0both\u00a049ers general manager John Lynch\u00a0and the tight end himself\u00a0expressed\u00a0optimism\u00a0for his return-to-play timeline<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

San Francisco had three other tight ends on the roster for the 2025 season:\u00a0Jake\u00a0Tonges<\/a>,\u00a0Luke\u00a0Farrell<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Brayden Willis<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Tonges\u00a0becomes a restricted free agent this offseason. He served well filling in for Kittle during the\u00a0star\u2019s\u00a0six games missed in the regular season, recording 34 receptions for 293 receiving yards and five touchdowns.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Farrell is under contract through the 2027 season. He saw limited usage in the\u00a049ers\u00a0offense, recording just 11 receptions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Download and follow the 49ers Talk Podcast<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the wake of\u00a0George Kittle suffering\u00a0a torn Achilles in the playoffs, the 49ers might need some help at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":151215,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[74746,8757,19865,1736,74747,17640,101,103,102,104,106,105],"class_list":["post-151214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-brayden-willis","tag-george-kittle","tag-jake-tonges","tag-john-lynch","tag-luke-farrell","tag-nfl-draft","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151214"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151214\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/151215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}