Will George Kittle Confirm His Place Amongst Tight End Elites In 2025?
By Peter Mann
There’s been a number of standout Tight Ends in the NFL over the years and, away from the San Francisco 49ers, they’ve included the likes of Mike Ditka (Chicago Bears/Philadelphia Eagles/Dallas Cowboys) and Charlie Sanders (Detroit Lions), Todd Christensen (Oakland/Los Angeles Raiders) and, in more recent times, Tony Gonzalez (Kansas City Chiefs/Atlanta Falcons), Rob Gronkowski (New England Patriots), and Travis Kelce (Kansas City Chiefs).
With the San Francisco 49ers, the five-time Super Bowl winners enjoying successes primarily through the 1980s and early 1990s, have seen some great Tight Ends don that famous Red & Gold jersey down the years, Brent Jones being the standout during this period.
Jones has previously been inducted into his franchises Hall of Fame, doing so this year in fact, however none have made the NFLs Hall of Fame, yet; of all the former Niners stars, Jones, and more recently another TE in Vernon Davis, have registered ten years apiece, both at the Niners’ former home of Candlestick Park.
Fast-forward to the present day and current TE, Wisconsin-native George Kittle, who graduated from the University of Iowa with a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, could well be the player to break the mould and, with his tenth year at the Niners just around the corner, become the eleventh player in his position to achieve that feat, thus ensuring that gold jacket career.
Of the handful of TEs that have been inducted into the NFLs Hall of Fame, the legendary Chicago Bears star, Mike Ditka, was first to be inducted, back in 1988, he being followed by Ozzie Newsome (1990), John Mackey (1992), Jackie Smith (1994), Kellen Winslow (1995), Dave Casper (2002), Charlie Sanders (2007), Shannon Sharpe (2011), Tony Gonzalez (2019), and Antonio Gates (2025).
Meanwhile, over in Santa Clara, and the San Francisco Bay Area, they’ve had some players down the years, with, depending on who you converse with, that of Kittle, Jones and Davis the regular top three.
The first of any note in the Bay Area being that of sixties star, Monty Stickles (1960-1967), followed by early seventies player, Ted Kwalick (1969-1974), whilst during those heady, Super Bowl-winning years, away from Jones, there was also the trio of Charlie Young (1980-1982), Russ Francis (1982-1987), and John Frank (1984-1988).
For Jones however, the California-born, Santa Clara Broncos, home-town hero, spent eleven seasons with the Niners (Kittle’s contract will take him beyond that), making 164 appearances, only not making the play-offs in 1991 – that and his debut season (1987) being the lowest in terms of games played.
His time with the franchise saw him set records galore, finishing as their all-time leader in receptions (417), receiving yards (5195), and receiving touchdowns (33), before Vernon Davis (2006-2015) broke them all during his spell in the Bay.
At Candlestick Park, Jones was part of a side that won NFC West titles, three NFC Championships, and three Super Bowls, appearing twenty-one times over ten seasons in the play-offs.
A one-time First Team All-Pro, Four-Time Pro-Bowler, 49ers Hall of Fame inductee, Jones’ time coincided with another newcomer who, at that time, was playing back-up – quarterback Steve Young (from Tampa Bay Buccaneers) found himself entrenched in a battle with MVP quarterback, Joe Montana; now that is a story for the ages.
In an interview with the LA Times thirty years ago now, Young told Staff Writer, Chris Dufresne, of Jones that: “He’s one of those guys, the ultimate hard worker.
“They made a spot for him, and now he’s in the Pro Bowl.
“He could have easily never played football. It was against the odds.
“I think he made himself a player. I don’t think anyone knew. He was the only who had an inkling.”
Whilst Jones added of both Young, and himself, he making the cut before his teammate: “I remember how beat up Steve was at the time.
“To see how good he is now made it all worth it.
“Funny thing, but you’re never really going to get any credit for those types of things (statistically, a lot has changed since then, just ask Kittle).
“But it’s something we felt we had to do at the time.
“I’ve really come a long way; I was generally a wide receiver coming into the league.
“I’ve gotten to the point where I think I’m pretty good at it.”
And that does sound familiar, Jones stating he was “generally a wide receiver” when he arrived in the pro game; moving to the present day and the current Tight End incumbent, the now 31-year-old Kittle, was in a similar status when making the move into the NFL.
Over to the current star, the modern day, gold standard TE in George Kittle who, like Jones, was a fifth-round draft pick, some thirty years on, actually played a number of positions on the Iowa Hawkeyes field – wide receiver, defensive back, linebacker, and was the team captain as a senior.
Helping the Hawkeyes to the Big Ten West back in 2015 (12-2), Kittle’s college record alone was a fairly decent one, overall.
The son of athletes, his father Bruce Kittle was an OL (1977-1979, 1981) and co-captain with Iowa in the 1982 Rose Bowl, whilst also having spells coaching at both the University of Iowa, and University of Oklahoma; Kittle’s mother meanwhile, Jan Krieger, played both basketball and softball at Drake University.
At Iowa between 2012 and 2016, Kittle, on the football field, registered 737yds, 10TDs, 48 receptions (rec), in his thirty-one games and, although he never had a losing season during his time with the Hawkeyes, he also never won a Bowl (0-4)
Outback Bowl (2013) lost 21-14 vs, LSU Tigers
TaxSlayer Bowl (2014) lost 45-28 vs. Tennessee Volunteers
Rose Bowl (2015) lost 45-16 vs. Stanford Cardinal
Outback Bowl (2016) lost 30-3 vs. Florida Gators
When being drafted for the Niners, Kittle joined former Hawkeyes’ teammate, CJ Beathard, a quarterback who was a third-round pick and spent a couple of seasons in the Bay before moving on to Jacksonville Jaguars, and briefly with the Miami Dolphins, before returning to the Jags.
Looking back at his rookie season for the Niners, Kittle’s debut came in their 2017 pre-season opener against Carolina Panthers, catching five passes for twenty-seven yards; his first TD score came in the 26-23 OT loss against Indianapolis Colts and, despite picking up an injury in week nine, finished the season with 515yds, 2TDs, 43 receptions, from his fifteen games.
Since that rookie season Kittle, and the 49ers, have continued to go from strength-to-strength; during his time (to date) at Levi’s Stadium, Santa Clara, the TE is a three-time NFC West winner, twice NFC Championship winner, twice a Super Bowl runner-up (2019 and 2023), whilst also being a two-time First Team All-Pro player (2019, 2023) and six-time Pro Bowl player (2018, 2019, 2021-24).
2019 – won NFC West, won NFC Championship, lost Super Bowl LIV (21-20 vs. Kansas City Chiefs)
2021 – lost NFC Championship
2022 – won NFC West, lost NFC Championship
2023 – won NFC West, won NFC Championship, lost Super Bowl LVIII (25-22 OT vs. Kansas City Chiefs)
In the here-and-now, and during the stages of the pre-season clash between West Coast rivals, Kittle’s San Francisco 49ers at the Allegiant Stadium, home of the Las Vegas Raiders, the Niners winning 22-19 courtesy of a 59yd FG attempt from #4 Jake Moody – in the build-up to that, the incoming Red & Gold legend, whilst prowling the sidelines, was welcomed on-screen (Sky Sports coverage) as an ‘On-Field Correspondent.’
Providing insights into his thought processes, Kittle said of players coming into the game over in Santa Clara, as well as the TEs that were on show, that: “One thing I always tell guys is, you get in the NFL, you’re technically gifted; the whole NFL is freak athletes so what really separates you is what’s in your brain.
“If you can sell the game down, think, the process, it’s all in your head.
“Are you going to let the crowd get into your head, or let the team get in your head, or just focus on what you can control and go out there and hit somebody in the face.
“I’m a huge fan of all the Tight End’s playing today (Niners at Raiders) and the 49ers, they’re doing a really good job on the run-game.
“It’s fun to see the young guys out there, you can tell they have the mindset of fly around really fast and just lay someone out, and I love that.”
When you’re someone like Kittle, who’ll be starting the 2025 season still at 240lbs+ but looking a lot leaner than previous seasons, you can see why laying the opposition excites, but perhaps puts the frighteners up the opposition.
Last season, which was a poor one by 49ers standards (4th NFC West, 6-11), Kittle posted stats of 78 receptions, 1106yds, 8TDs; it is the fourth season in his NFL career to which he’s posted 1000yds+ whilst overall he’s played 125 games (started 117), 538 receptions, 7380yds, 45TDs.
Seemingly, and with his business-brain ticking away nicely in the background though, Kittle has a ‘thing’ for the scientific side of America’s Game, and rightly so. In-fact, back in 2021, he, and fellow TEs, Travis Kelce (Chiefs) and Greg Olsen (sports commentator, formerly of Chicago Bears, Carolina Panthers, Seattle Seahawks) launched what became known as the Tight End University “to bring the Tight End community together for an immersive three-day program. Over the course of the summit, attendees are able to bond, collaborate with, and learn amongst their peers while participating in a variety of activities including film study, on-field drills, recovery, rehabilitation, and more.”
Meanwhile, furthering his technological conversation during his ‘moonlighting’ as On-Field Correspondent, Kittle was excited, and maybe a little bemused, by the use of the Virtual Measurements/Sony Hawk-Eye technology, a “virtual measurement system allows the NFL to accurately and efficiently measure the distance between the spotted ball and the line to gain.
“The technology, tested extensively last season, will bring a new level of precision and speed to NFL officiating,” via NFL.com.
It took Kittle back to his time at Iowa, he reminiscing when saying that: “Back in college, I was in an entrepreneurship class and we had to invent something and make a business-like sale for it, and my inventions was that there was a microchip in a football, for measurements.
“I thought of that back in 2014 and I should have done something with it. That would been very helpful for me today as they could have bought it from me. I missed my window as it was definitely an opportunity.”
Back to the action though and the ‘Road to the Super Bowl’ for George Kittle and his San Francisco 49ers teammates begins in earnest on 7 September, and a trip to Lumen Field, home of Seattle Seahawks, then to the Caesars Superdome a week later when at New Orleans Saints.
The first home game for the 49ers in the 2025 regular season sees them welcome, on 21 September, Arizona Cardinals; the season finished with back-to-back home games against Chicago Bears and the return with Seattle Seahawks, in late December, early January.
They’ll certainly be hoping that, by then, they’ll have wrapped up the NFC West, and looking at a deep run into the post-season, and who knows, another shot at the Super Bowl; after all, it’s been some thirty-plus years since they last lifted the Vince Lombardi Trophy.
PETER MANN
NFL ANALYST
PETER IS A LIFELONG SPORTS FAN, JOURNALIST AND AUTHOR BASED IN COUNTY DURHAM. HE HAS FOLLOWED THE NFL AND THE RAIDERS SINCE THE 1980s, AND LOVES BOTH SPORTS AND FAMILY HISTORY. PETER HAS A DEGREE IN SPORT & EXERCISE PSYCHOLOGY, AND CAN BE FOUND ON TWITTER @petermannwriter