Jake Tonges — Week 1: No Targets, and a Knee in the Second Quarter

Jake Tonges's night ended on a play he did not touch the ball on. Second quarter, two 43 left, first and 10 at the San Francisco eight: Deebo Samuel ran behind the right guard for 12 yards, and the play-by-play carries the note that Tonges was injured on the play. He did not have a target before it, and the play-by-play does not mention him again, in a game San Francisco won 27 to seven.

The reporting on what happened, from David Bonilla at 49ers Webzone: Kyle Shanahan said after the game that it was not good, that it was not an ACL, that he believed it was an MCL, and that there were issues with it the team would have to see about. Nothing in that puts a timeline on it, and this show will not either.

What the game says about Tonges himself is nothing — zero targets, zero catches. What it says about the position is a little more. San Francisco's tight ends were thrown to seven times Thursday — five to George Kittle, all before the midpoint of the second quarter, and two to Luke Farrell; the second-half passing game, nine throws in total, went to Deebo Samuel, Mike Evans, Christian McCaffrey, Demarcus Robinson and Luke Farrell. Farrell caught a 14-yard pass on second and 10 from the San Francisco one, the second play of the 99-yard touchdown drive and the longest tight-end catch of the night.

Back in June the preview's point about Tonges was that his 2025 production had arrived because Kittle missed time rather than because Tonges had a role of his own — the least repeatable kind of opportunity. Thursday was a game Kittle played and was thrown to in, and Tonges's line reads the way that preview said it would when that is true. Now the question is when he plays next, and this show will not guess. San Francisco is home to Miami on Sunday the twentieth.

_Data via nflverse._