49ers

49ers TE George Kittle was asked about his injury and the possibility he could miss a lot of time in 2026, with GM John Lynch telling reporters that Kittle would likely have an aggressive rehab process.

“It felt like someone put a shotgun up against my calf and pulled the trigger,” Kittle told Nick Wagoner of ESPN. “The second it happened, I knew exactly what it was.”

“They didn’t have to drill into my heel,” Kittle said of his procedure. “And where the repair was is where there’s more blood flow. And so, it takes some time off the recovery time. He’s very excited about everything, my recovery, when I’ll be running, when I’ll be ready to go play again. … It’s not as bad as other ones, so just excited about that. It doesn’t take a lot for me to be inspired to play football because it’s like my favorite thing ever besides my wife and my family. But anytime that you’re taken away from it, it just makes you want to get right back out there, and that’s all you want to do.”

“George will attack it in a great way,” Lynch commented. “We’re very hopeful to have him back. I remember when I first started playing, you had an Achilles, and everybody’s like, ‘Oh man, that’s tough. You’re never the same.’ That’s not the case anymore. I think like a lot of things, they’ve gotten much better at the surgeries, they’ve gotten much better and more aggressive in the rehab and how quickly you get after it. And I think that will be the case for George and we expect to have him back next year and a big impact like he always has been for us.”

Cardinals

• Matt Zenitz reports the Cardinals are hiring Chiefs OLBs coach Rod Wilson as their new inside linebackers coach.
• According to Zenitz, the current expectation is that the Cardinals will shift former ILBs coach Cristian Garcia to safeties coach.

Seahawks

Seahawks OC Brian Fleury said that the team’s offense will be a continuation of the offense that former OC Klint Kubiak installed.

“It looks very similar to the one that just won the Super Bowl,” Fleury said when asked how his offense will operate, via Around The NFL. “It’s more about how you play than what you actually are doing schematically. We’re gonna be fast and violent and aggressive in every way that we possibly can. Put pressure on defenses, both schematically and from a tempo standpoint. And just always have that type of mindset.”

While Fleury continued to preach continuity, he hopes to add a few wrinkles that he gained from his time in San Francisco to help make it his own.

“I do think one of the advantages of taking this job is there is gonna be a lot of continuity,” Fleury said. “I’ve already started to dive into everything that Klint [Kubiak] was doing here last year, and the goal would be to maintain as much of that as possible, but there’s also areas where we can supplement that with things that we’ve developed and done in San Francisco. … So, that’s going to be the goal, is to keep as much as we can, the same. But I think there’s areas where we can grow, some different ways we can challenge the players, that they should be looking forward to when they get back here.”

Fleury added that he hopes the team can retain both RB Kenneth Walker II and WR Rashid Shaheed and said that his pitch is for them to continue to be successful in a system that fits them.

“I think they’re gonna be very happy with the continuity that would exist here,” Fleury said. “Obviously, they’re coming off of very significant years, Rashid, obviously, like got here midway through the season, but had an impact right away. And then, you know, kind of obviously see a Super Bowl MVP. I can’t dive too much into that because of the contract situation. But I would love the opportunity to work with either one of them.“