Traveling all the way to Australia for Week 1 is brutal for the 49ers, but George Kittle is embracing it as a positive.

The Los Angeles Rams will open the 2026 season in unconventional fashion, heading all the way to Melbourne, Australia for a Week 1 matchup with the San Francisco 49ers on Sept. 10. The game is still four months away but oddsmakers have already set betting lines for the season opener.

The San Francisco 49ers know what to expect from their star players, but if they want to compete in the NFC West, some second- and third-year players will need to break out.

When 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan aired grievances at the annual NFL meetings in March about his team getting the short straw for a long trip to Australia to face the Rams — at (as Shanahan insists) the specific request of the Rams — Shanahan held out hope for a nugget of consideration when the 49ers return to the United States.

After watching the Los Angeles Rams land Myles Garrett, the San Francisco 49ers face rising pressure to make a splash of their own.

Lamar Jackson is relieved to see Myles Garrett out of the AFC North, but he knows Jared Verse is a menace, too.