49ers tight end Jake Tonges suffers MCL injury, Kyle Shanahan says "it wasn't good"

49ers tight end Jake Tonges left Thursday night's win over the Rams with a knee injury, and coach Kyle Shanahan offered an ominous update after the game.

"It wasn't good. It's not an ACL, it's the MCL, I believe, but there's some issues with it that we've got to see how it is. There's a little more information to it, but we don't know yet," Shanahan said.

The 49ers likely won't know the full extent of Tonges' injury until they're back from Australia and can give him a full battery of tests, but Shanahan's tone suggested that the medical staff thinks Tonges will miss significant time.

The 27-year-old Tonges has been with the 49ers since 2023. He spent his first year in San Francisco on the practice squad and played mostly special teams in 2024, but he saw a much bigger role on offense in 2025 because of injuries to George Kittle. Last year Tonges caught 34 passes for 293 yards and five touchdowns, and this offseason he signed a two-year, $8 million contract.