George Kittle shares a message with his teammates amid the 49ers’ woes

Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images

Tight end George Kittle is widely considered one of the most optimistic voices in the San Francisco 49ers locker room. That positivity remains, even though the team is facing playoff elimination with five games left in the season.

The 49ers still have a chance to win the NFC West, but that goal appears increasingly out of reach unless their play drastically improves. The team has lost three games in a row, with the last two games being blown defeats, and is now 5-7.

Following practice on Thursday, Kittle delivered his motivational message to his teammates as they prepare to host the Chicago Bears this weekend.

“All I think about, and my message to the guys, is, ‘Look, everything is still ahead of us,'” Kittle confidently shared. “And just erase the things that happened. Don’t worry about what happened in the past.”

“Take it easy, try to do your best and just move forward because we still have a lot of great players on this team that can all make really special plays. And all it takes is a spark to get the guys going and then after that we’ll see what can happen.

Kittle acknowledged that each loss this season is more difficult given the high expectations the 49ers had heading into the season. Once considered Super Bowl contenders, they are now fighting to get back into the playoff race with little room for error.

“It’s hard for you. It’s torture,” Kittle said. “But the way I look at it, while those games were terrible, we can get better from them, like, ‘Hey, why are we so bad? Hey, why are we at minus three in the sales column?’ You can benefit from that and become better.”

Heading into Sunday’s game, the 49ers need to use that optimism to come out with a win and turn things around.