49ers depth chart: What happens if George Kittle gets hurt?
By Peter Panacy
49ers Depth TE No. 2: MyCole Pruitt
Things get a little hazy on San Francisco’s tight end depth chart behind George Kittle and Ross Dwelley, and it’s a pretty open-ended question who’ll make the 53-man roster following training camp and the preseason.
One of the names to watch here is 29-year-old veteran TE MyCole Pruitt, who only amassed over 100 receiving yards once in his career (2018) and has only four receiving touchdowns after breaking into the league as a Round 5 pick of the Minnesota Vikings back in the 2015 NFL Draft.
No. 3 tight ends on most NFL rosters aren’t exactly intended to be legitimate pass-catching options, though, so it makes sense why the 49ers onboarded him as a late offseason free-agent pickup.
Primarily to compete as a blocker with one of their other tight ends, Charlie Woerner, whom we’ll get to shortly.
In this regard, Pruitt does stand out. According to Pro Football Focus (h/t Niners Nation), Pruitt was tied for the seventh-best run-blocking tight end in the league last year. And while his pass-blocking efforts weren’t particularly great in 2020, his previous efforts have stood out in a positive way, too.