The San Francisco 49ers know how lucky they are to have Brock Purdy as quarterback, especially with how well he has played the first two weeks of this season, leading the Niners to back-to-back victories.
It appears that Claire Kittle, the wife of 49ers tight end George Kittle, is also very thankful for Purdy.
Purdy and Kittle hooked up multiple times on Sunday during San Francisco's easy victory over the Miami Dolphins. Kittle caught four passes from Purdy for 80 yards and a touchdown. According to PFF tracking, Purdy and Kittle are now the most efficient quarterback-tight end duo in NFL history.
That’s pretty remarkable when one thinks of the other great quarterback-tight end tandems in history, like Philip Rivers and Antonio Gates on the San Diego Chargers, or Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce with the Kansas City Chiefs.
Claire Kittle reacted to this amazing stat on social media by writing, “Just imagine if [George Kittle] had a consistent QB week to week for the first five years of his career lol. Thankful to have Brock at the helm. This duo has a lot of records together. Let’s keep it rolling.”
WHAT CLAIRE SAID 🗣️🗣️🗣️🗣️ pic.twitter.com/5MAlgtZLFv
— 49ersMuse (@9ersmuse) September 20, 2026
Jimmy Garoppolo caught a stray from Claire Kittle's social media post
Now, many fans interpreted this as a slight towards Jimmy Garoppolo.
It’s possible she meant it as some sort of dig, but let’s assume it was unintentional and was at most an inadvertent swipe. Either way, it’s a fair point because Kittle had several quarterbacks throwing to him his first few seasons in the NFL.
Really, the only season where Garoppolo was the quarterback the entire year was in 2019 when San Francisco made it to the Super Bowl. He was the starter for most of the 2021 campaign, but he wasn't at full health, so he wasn’t entirely effective. Kittle was catching passes from the likes of Brian Hoyer, C.J. Beathard, and Nick Mullens, too.
Not until Purdy took over in 2022 has Kittle had a pretty reliable signal-caller. Purdy only missed the NFC Championship game in the 2022 season, due to injury, and he played all of 2023 to lead the 49ers to the Super Bowl, and then he missed two games in 2024. When Purdy missed those eight games last season, that mainly overlapped with the games Kittle missed due to his hamstring injury.
It’s already clear Purdy is a superior quarterback to Garoppolo. The former's numbers are superior, and it’s obvious head coach Kyle Shanahan has way more trust in him than he ever did in Garoppolo.
So, whether Claire Kittle was trying to diss Garoppolo or not, the simple fact is the Niners have a stable quarterback in Purdy, and the nice thing is they have a pretty great backup, too, in Mac Jones in case Purdy goes down.
Quarterback continuity is a rare thing in the NFL, but the Niners have to be happy that they have it right now.
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