What the heck happened to the San Francisco 49ers? Last year, the Bay Area team was at the top of the world. But this year, they are barely at the top of their division. Amidst all the injuries that the former Super Bowl contenders have sustained, George Kittle’s injury was a shocking one. A lot of fans didn’t see that coming.

The 49ers tight end didn’t come out of the Super Bowl rematch unscathed. The news has spread far and wide the 5x Pro Bowler has sustained a sprained foot in a matchup that ended with an 18-28 defeat at home. His wife, Claire Kittle, is deeply moved by the loss that the 49ers have faced and has a special message for Kyle Shanahan.

George Kittle’s wife tries to save the 49ers in his absence

Though Claire cannot replace George Kittle, she made a commendable effort to sympathize with the 49ers fanbase. Her Instagram Story had a picture of her pushing Kittle onto the field as she captioned it, “Honestly…put me in coach.” If anything, it’s really moving to see how much she loves the San Fran team.

Leaving aside Claire’s IG Story, this season has been a bit topsy-turvy for the tight end. He had already missed the week 3 game against the LA Rams due to a hamstring injury. The San Fran team ended up losing that game 27-24. And a rib injury added more to his woes before he was listed as questionable after sustaining a sprained foot in the Chiefs matchup.

Sources suggest that the 49ers didn’t immediately put him on the injury list after the week 7 game. It possibly means that he started feeling the pain Sunday night or Monday morning. He’s on a day-to-day basis and it’s unclear whether he’d play in the upcoming game against the Dallas Cowboys.

Kittle caught 6 of the 7 passes thrown to him and racked up 92 yards in that game, but with no touchdowns to show for it. However, he’s amassed 34 receptions, 375 yards, and five touchdowns so far in the season. We can’t help but wonder how Brock Purdy’s season will go after being deprived of his receivers Deebo Samuel and Brandon Aiyuk.

Christian McCaffrey is already on Injured Reserve since the start of the season due to his bilateral Achilles tendonitis. To make matters worse, BA, who got a 4-year $120 million extension, suffered a season-ending ACL injury. It’s as if the football gods are trying to rub more salt on the San Fran team’s wounds as Deebo Samuel was hospitalized because he had pneumonia and was diagnosed to have some fluid in his lungs.

Not to mention that Jauan Jennings had already missed week 7 due to a hip injury. It’s some sort of a sick cosmic joke. Now Brock Purdy must rely on two rookie receivers, Ricky Pearsall (who’s returning after sustaining bullet wounds) and Jacob Cowing. Then there’s the curious case of the sophomore receiver Ronnie Bell, who hasn’t been utilized much in the last two seasons.

So, things might not be fine and dandy within the San Francisco 49ers organization. Especially after that locker room exchange between Kyle Shanahan and Brock Purdy came to light.

Did Kyle Shanahan have a heart-to-heart with Brock Purdy or was it something else?

Let’s be honest for a moment here. Brock Purdy really looked like Mr. Irrelevant after throwing three picks in the loss to the Chiefs. Connecting only 17 of his 31 passes over 212 yards backed him to a corner a little bit. He came out with a 36.7 passer rating, which was the worst one in his career. Not to mention that he went scoreless throughout the game.

Then, news broke out that Kyle Shanahan spoke to him in the locker room for a couple of minutes. Reports indicated that Purdy didn’t say anything to Shanahan and simply listened closely. Both men shook hands after the conversation. However, the Niners HC didn’t realize that the media was lurking like hungry crocs to get a scoop on what was going on between the quarterback and his coach.

It just so happens that Shanahan had a different story to tell about his interaction with Purdy. Per him, it was just a normal post-game conversation that he has with every player. “We were just talking like we always do, I just didn’t realize you guys were all standing behind me spying on us,” Shanahan said with a laugh. “I love talking to guys after the game, I just happened to be walking back and he was just standing right there so we stopped and started talking.”

Throwing 2 picks was already bad. But 3? The third one was very painful to watch. The 49ers trailed by 21-12 and the offense had driven 60 yards downfield to the Kansas City Chiefs’ 5-yard line. The team prepared to score a touchdown on third-and-goal when Purdy threw the ball to Chris Conley, but Jaden Hicks intercepted it with about 9:30 remaining in the fourth quarter.

While the pick in the last quarter seemed like a genuine mistake, his third-quarter interception on a pass to Ronnie Bell felt like a bad decision on his part. He overthrew the ball and it landed in the hands of Christian Roland-Wallace. It looked bad! This was probably the worst game of his career and Patrick Mahomes gave him another chip on the shoulder.

With this, the 49ers slip to 3-4 and head toward an uncertain future. In the absence of a lot of core players Purdy’s not doing well, and many are wondering whether the narrative of him being a “system quarterback” was true all along. But again, what player won’t struggle without their core offensive players like George Kittle missing?