With his contract done, 49ers’ George Kittle is ready to ‘run through someone’s face’
The hard part is over. Now George Kittle can get back to the field where he has the most fun as a football player: pushing around defenders, catching passes and breaking tackles.
The 49ers and their star tight end agreed to a five-year, $75 million extension through 2025 this week, solving the team’s largest remaining contractual puzzle before the regular season starts.
It’s no coincidence the deal was finalized Friday afternoon, just hours before the first practice of San Francisco’s abbreviated training camp Saturday morning. Kittle spoke to reporters afterward and expressed how happy he was to put those negotiations behind him.
“Just wanted to get it done, have some security. Now I can go on to the football field and not have any worries about anything,” Kittle said. “… I can just go out there and play football and run through someone’s face and I’m really excited about that.”
Kittle appears to be in great shape after spending the pandemic-laden offseason working out primarily in the new gym he installed in his garage at his offseason home in Nashville, Tennessee. Kittle has been known for returning to training camp in better condition than the season before and he made good on that trend again as he enters his fourth season.
Kittle has also become an unofficial spokesman for NFL tight ends. Last year he popularized “National Tight End Day” and the creation of a championship belt that tight ends would sign after the leading the week in fantasy points. It was auctioned off for charity, raising more than $7,000.
After generating attention for other tight ends, Kittle is also helping them get paid. His landmark extension reset the market for the position by a considerable margin. His $15 million average salary is roughly 30 percent more than the previous high: Austin Hooper’s $10.5 million average from the Cleveland Browns in a contract he signed in March.
Kansas City Chiefs star Travis Kelce also landed a new extension this week hours after news of Kittle’s deal broke. Kelce’s pact is worth $57.25 million over four years.
“I think, overall, tight ends are occasionally forgot about or not advertised enough,” Kittle said. “And I think the fact that guys are exploding through the ceiling, that was set with me. Travis Kelce got a fantastic new deal, I know (Zach) Ertz is about to get one and the guys that are just blowing through that, it’s fun to see and I think tight ends will just continue to prove that we’re worth a lot to the team.”
Locking up Kittle, adding help at tight end ‘an advantage’ for 49ers
The deal for Kittle came together while he was participating with teammates during walk-throughs and meetings. He was a full participant in the virtual offseason program and decided against trying to use a holdout as leverage over the team that made him a fifth-round draft choice in 2017.
As general manager John Lynch said before training camp started, it made too much sense not to get a deal done.
But it didn’t come easily. Re-making the market for a position often takes more time than following a blueprint when that market is already set, like at quarterback or defensive end. And the pandemic threw another wrench into things. The two sides didn’t have a clear idea of what the 2021 salary cap would look like until the NFL Players Association and owners agreed in July to have a $175 million salary cap floor that set the working parameters for Kittle’s new deal.
Lynch likened the negotiations to his playing days as a safety when the market had been depressed before he became one of the highest paid at the position.
“I think I had an interesting perspective, personally, because I played a position that lagged behind in terms of getting paid and I felt like the position and the nature of the position had changed,” Lynch said Saturday. “At one point I became the high-water mark at safety for about 24 hours before Brian Dawkins did. But you also kind of feel a responsibility to the game to the other players at your position. So I knew we were dealing with some interesting dynamics there and I knew as a result it would be a challenge.”
Potentially making life easier for Kittle will be the addition of veteran tight end Jordan Reed, who was signed this month to provide depth and give San Francisco another capable pass catcher.
Kittle had been the most senior tight end in the room until Reed’s arrival. Reed was formally one of the league’s highest-paid tight ends with Washington when he signed a $50 million contract in 2016.
“Honestly when I get a new tight end, the first thing I look at is how he fits in the room. And with our tight end room, I think he did a great job where he fit in right away,” Kittle said. “He’s very coachable from Coach Embo (Jon Embree), which is awesome. He makes good points. He’s a very good teacher in there. Coach (Kyle) Shanahan said he’s the best route-running tight end he’s ever had, so I’ve watched a lot of Jordan Reed tape. The fact that I get to share a room with him now is amazing.”
Lynch said having Reed join Kittle on the roster is “an advantage for us.”
This story was originally published August 15, 2020 at 4:10 PM.
