Kittle tweaked his hamstring and will be limited at Wednesday's practice, Cam Inman of The Mercury News reports.
This is somewhat worrisome even though Kittle is still practicing in some capacity, as he dealt with a hamstring issue throughout much of training camp and the preseason. He still did enough to make the 49ers comfortable with trading Vance McDonald, a move that leaves Kittle atop the depth chart heading into Sunday's game against the Panthers. While clearly on track to outperform his fifth-round draft slot in his rookie season, Kittle faces a tough learning curve at a position that doesn't have much recent history of productive rookie seasons. He had phenomenal workout metrics at the Combine after catching only 48 passes in four collegiate seasons playing in a run-heavy Iowa offense. His quarterback from the past two seasons, C.J. Beathard, is now serving as Brian Hoyer's backup in San Francisco.