George Kittle fantasy football insight from Hayden Winks - PPR Rankings

Kittle has been the best TE in football the last couple of years, but how much of that can continue a year after a torn achilles as a 32-year-old? He was the TE1 in EPA per target, TE1 in completion percentage over expected, TE1 in yards per target, and TE1 in success rate from 2024-2025. That truly elite efficiency led to a TE4 finish last season on TE9 usage. His 16% target share is not that of an elite tight end, so any dip in efficiency hits Kittle harder. https://x.com/TheSFNiners/status/2069487928028414207 Kittle's surgery was January 14th, 2026, so he'll be right at 9 months when the 49ers return home from their season opener in Australia. He is aiming for a return then, but videos of him in offseason workouts show he's still developing muscle growth on his right side. He's still running with a bit of a limp just months away from the season. I don't doubt Kittle will be playing in September. I do doubt that he'll be anywhere near 100%. Studies off torn achilles show efficiency and usage dips in their first year back for all ages but specifically for older players. With Mike Evans, Ricky Pearsall, early 2nd-rounder De'Zhaun Stribling, Christian Kirk, and Christian McCaffrey around to ease him back in, I'd expect Kittle to be more of a bench stash than immediate starter early on. What does that mean for his 2026 projections? Well, over the past two seasons, Kittle averaged 6.1 targets and 10.5 yards per target. If those dip to 5.0 targets and 8.5 yards per target, then he's around 45 yards per game instead of the 65 yards per game across the past two seasons. That's...