Jake Tonges Camp Update — August 16: The Switch Is Still Another Man's Tendon

Jake Tonges caught a layered ball over a linebacker from Brock Purdy during Tuesday's joint practice against Tennessee, per David Bonilla at 49ers Webzone — one of the highlights of Purdy's 21 of 27, three-touchdown day. That's the week's whole Tonges file: no stat line for him appeared in the accessed coverage of Thursday's preseason opener, and the thing that actually decides his season didn't move.

That thing, as the June preview put it, is George Kittle's Achilles. Tonges caught 34 passes and five touchdowns last year, but the June argument was that the touchdown rate was weather, not climate, that his own repeatable baseline is a rotational 13 percent target share, and that the entire difference between backup and starting tight end in Kyle Shanahan's offense belongs to another man's rehab. If Kittle opens the season on the shelf, Tonges is a starter in the league's friendliest tight end scheme; if Kittle makes Week 1, Tonges goes back to the margins.

The switch stayed stuck this week. Kittle didn't appear in team drills in any coverage we accessed; The Press Democrat reported Sunday, at headline strength only since the article is paywalled, that he's aiming for Week 1. Meanwhile the offense around Tonges keeps shedding pass catchers — Ricky Pearsall out for the season, Christian Kirk still out with his calf — which only raises the value of whoever is running routes for Purdy in September. A first-team rep like Tuesday's, in front of the starting quarterback, is exactly how a next man up stays next.

Does the June read hold? UNCHANGED — the role is still real in the margins, and the size of it still belongs to Kittle's recovery, which produced words this week but no visible practice. Next week: Kittle's team-drill status above all, then whether Tonges gets a receiving line against the Chargers on Thursday. We'll check next Sunday.

_Data via nflverse._