49ers Waive Brayden Willis, and Fantasy Managers Won't Blink
Willis logged zero solo tackles on 32 special-teams snaps in preseason and never dented the fantasy radar. George Kittle's return sealed his fate.
Kittle stays a locked TE1 with the room now his.
- Willis waived days before Week 1
- 0 solo tackles on 32 preseason ST snaps
- Willis: 0 PPR pts over 6 games in 2025
- Move clears room for the long snapper
- Kittle posted 162 PPR pts in 11 games (2025)
The San Francisco 49ers waived tight end Brayden Willis less than a week before their Week 1 opener, clearing a roster spot to bring back their long snapper. If your fantasy antenna didn't so much as twitch, that's the correct reaction — Willis put up 0 PPR points across six games in 2025 and never carved out anything close to a role.
The writing was on the wall in preseason. San Francisco leaned on Willis for special teams, giving him 32 snaps to prove he belonged, and he came away with zero solo tackles. Sprinkle in a couple of decent blocks and that was the whole résumé. With Kyle Juszczyk back practicing and George Kittle healthy, there simply wasn't a path to the field.
The bigger picture is a roster numbers crunch that swallowed more than one long shot. Undrafted rookie Bryson Eason flashed real promise on tape in August, yet the 49ers rolled with fellow UDFA James Thompson at defensive tackle instead — a reminder that draft capital and depth math tend to win these battles, not preseason highlights.
There's a human cost buried in the transaction wire, too. Willis made the grueling 16-hour trip to Australia with the team and was mentally locking in for the opener, only to get cut days before kickoff. That's the brutal side of the business the box score never shows.
The Fantasy Fallout
For managers, this one is pure noise. Willis was never rostered in anything but the deepest of dynasty formats, and his release doesn't shift a single depth chart that matters. He's a name to file away, not a name to chase off waivers.
The only fantasy-relevant thread here is what it confirms about George Kittle. With Kittle back and the room thinned out, San Francisco's tight end usage funnels almost entirely through him. He finished 2025 with 57 catches, 628 yards and seven touchdowns for 162 PPR points across 11 games, landing at our No. 13 tight end (No. 102 overall). If you drafted Kittle, keep starting him with zero hesitation — nothing about Willis's exit changes his ceiling, and it arguably reinforces how central he is to this offense.
