George Kittle was among the many San Francisco 49ers players who didn't suit up for Friday's preseason opener against the Green Bay Packers. The team is being cautious with its All-Pro tight end, wanting to ensure he enters Week 1 as healthy as possible. That has meant limiting his workload this offseason.
"I think Kittle's biggest thing was getting back to feeling fully healthy," head coach Kyle Shanahan said before Monday's practice. "That's why we were real smart with him in OTAs. He didn't do much at all there. We've eased him into camp and I think he's in a good spot right now.
"I'd like him to continue getting work so he can get all the rust off and things like that. But our goal for Kittle is making sure he's 100 percent for Week 1."
Another player the 49ers are being careful with is cornerback Jason Verrett. He is returning from the ACL injury he suffered during Week 1 last season. There is good reason for the team's reluctance to push the recovering cornerback too hard.
"Like I said earlier, we're going to be real smart with that," Shanahan explained. "We're not going to let him go until he's more than ready to go, so we'll see how these next two weeks go. But it probably would surprise me [if he's ready] for Week 1."
Shanahan confirmed that if the 49ers activate Verrett from the physically-unable-to-perform (PUP) list to allow him to start practicing, and things don't go well, they can't put him back on the list.
"We wouldn't want to throw him out there to see," Shanahan added. "We'd have to know before we threw him out there."
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