49ers QB Mac Jones on the Possibility of a George Kittle Week 1 Return

Mac Jones joined the show from Tight End U and made one thing clear up front: the event is not just cones and Reese's. "This is good educational football," the 49ers quarterback said. He skips the classroom sessions himself, but the feedback he hears is glowing, especially for the younger tight ends learning from Greg Olsen and the older generation. Jones got real work in last year, sweating through routes, and described it as a genuine training session rather than a glorified hang.

Pressed to name a favorite tight end after throwing to so many across three teams, Jones wisely declined to start a fight. "I can't give you an exact answer cuz all the other ones would really piss at me," he laughed. He gave each his due: Hunter Henry in New England, Evan Engram in Jacksonville, and now George Kittle in San Francisco, plus Jake Tonges. Kittle drew the warmest words. "George is the man. He built the culture of San Francisco, him and Juice," Jones said, giving Kyle Juszczyk a half-credit at tight end whenever he lines up there.

The headline question was about Kittle's availability, specifically the odds he makes it onto the pitch for the league's game in Australia. Jones stayed in his lane but vouched for his teammate's habits. "Kittle always looks good. He's always training hard," he said, calling Kittle a wizard about his body who spends real money taking care of it. Jones would not put a timeline on it, noting plainly, "I'm not in his body," but trusted Kittle to know how he feels and to be ready to rip it when the moment comes.

From there the conversation turned to the surface debate that has dominated talk around the World Cup venues. The show described being at SoFi for the Switzerland victory on Thursday and marveled at how the place cleans up with grass laid in. Kittle has been adamant, the show noted, that NFL teams should just install grass full-time the way they play on it at home. Jones gave a refreshingly honest non-answer. "I love grass. I've also played on turf," he said, recalling his turf high school field. "I don't really have a preference, but I also don't run that much compared to these other guys."

That candor stood out to the show, which pointed out most players plant a flag on the issue. Jones declined to. He did concede grass feels better to get tackled on, especially when cold turf turns solid, but kept shrugging it off. "It's whatever. I don't really care, to be honest."

Asked whether stadiums could actually pull off full-time grass, Jones treated it as a maintenance problem more than a philosophical one. He pointed to how difficult it is to keep a field healthy when two teams share it every week in bad weather, citing how rough the turf gets in Pittsburgh with just one team. It is cheaper and easier to maintain the current setups, he reasoned. And Jones, a soccer fan who grew up watching the sport his brother played in college, seemed genuinely glad the World Cup was spreading football internationally, grass or not.