George Kittle — Week 1: Five Targets, All Before Halftime, One of Them a Pick
2026 NFL Season · Half-PPR Scoring · Friday, Sep 11
Kittle was thrown to five times Thursday, all of them in the first eighteen minutes: two catches for twelve yards, two incompletions, one of them deep, and the short throw first and ten at the Los Angeles forty-six that Quentin Lake intercepted. After that interception, with twelve oh nine left in the second quarter, he was not targeted again in a game San Francisco won 27–7.
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George Kittle's last target of Thursday night came with 12 oh nine left in the second quarter — first and 10 at the Los Angeles 46, San Francisco down seven to three, Brock Purdy short right, intercepted by Quentin Lake at the 31. That throw was worth −4.6 expected points added, which is what a play was worth given down, distance and field position; the interception alone was most of the −5.6 that Kittle's five targets added up to. Purdy threw 16 more passes after it. None went to Kittle.
The four targets before that: an incompletion short left on second and four early in the first quarter; a six-yard catch on first down to the Los Angeles 48; a deep shot down the right side from the 26, 25 yards in the air, incomplete; and a six-yard catch on second and eight from the eight that put San Francisco at the two, on the 15-play opening drive that ended with a 20-yard field goal after third and two fell incomplete to someone else. Two catches, 12 yards, no touchdowns.
Where the ball went instead: eight targets to Christian McCaffrey, seven each to Mike Evans and Deebo Samuel, three to Demarcus Robinson, and three of the night's touchdowns among Robinson, Evans and Samuel. San Francisco threw 25 times before halftime and nine after, so part of Kittle's silent second half is that there was not much second-half passing to be silent in. But nine throws is nine throws, and none of them was his.
Back in June the preview's read was that a top-three per-game tight end was priced too cheaply, and that the thing nobody could price was a repaired Achilles in year 10. Thursday does not speak to the Achilles — he played, he was thrown to, he ran a deep route. It speaks to the role, and for one night the role was five targets in a quarter and a half and then nothing. That is not a trend; it is the first data point. San Francisco is home to Miami on Sunday the twentieth. The number to watch is second-half targets.
_Data via nflverse._
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