49ers roster 2023: George Kittle had resurgence with Brock Purdy, will it continue?
George Kittle had slowly trended in the wrong direction prior to the second half of 2022, and it might have a lot to do with Brock Purdy.
By Peter Panacy
George Kittle took off on a touchdown tear late in 2022, largely thanks to Brock Purdy. If the two play a full season together, will Kittle's numbers reflect it?
Even if you hate the San Francisco 49ers (why are you here then?), you probably have at least some adoration for All-Pro tight end George Kittle.
After all, the ever-energetic Kittle has one of the most magnetic personalities in all of football today, and the NFL world can thank him (at least partially) for both National Tight Ends Day and Tight End University, both of which have become quite the trend.
Additionally, Kittle's own persona helped make the Niners must-watch football again after some challenging years to kick off head coach Kyle Shanahan's regime, which coincided with Kittle joining San Francisco as a fifth-round NFL Draft pick out of Iowa back in 2017.
It helps Kittle is pretty good, too, regularly ranked as one of the league's three best tight ends going today.
Year | Games | Receptions | Yards | TDs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
2017 | 15 | 43 | 515 | 2 |
2018 | 16 | 88 | 1,377 | 5 |
2019 | 14 | 85 | 1,053 | 5 |
2020 | 8 | 48 | 634 | 2 |
2021 | 14 | 71 | 910 | 6 |
2022 | 15 | 60 | 765 | 11 |
Career | 80 | 395 | 5,254 | 31 |
A one-time owner of the NFL record for most receiving yards by a tight end in a single season (2018), there have only been a handful of knocks against Kittle, one of them being a rather unfortunate injury history that has prevented him from completing a full season in all but one of his years as a pro.
The other is that he's never been a true touchdown threat, never having more than six in any one season.
Well, until 2022, of course.
George Kittle had a resurgence with Brock Purdy under center in 2022
Kittle's "bromance" with now-Las Vegas Raiders quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo was well-known, but it's not too hard to see how, statistically, Kittle's impact with Jimmy G under center declined slowly with each passing year since 2019.
Sure, the 49ers regularly added more weapons since that season, including wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk and running back Christian McCaffrey. Yet Kittle should have continued to be one of Garoppolo's preferred targets, particularly down in the red zone.
However, once then-rookie Brock Purdy took over for an injured Garoppolo in Week 13 last year, Kittle's value as a touchdown commodity skyrocketed.
Seven of Kittle's 11 regular-season touchdowns came with Purdy under center, a career-best for the 29-year-old tight end.
Should Purdy play through a full season, and that trend winds up carrying over into 2023, perhaps Kittle winds up getting his dominant numbers once more.
How much money is George Kittle earning with 49ers in 2023?
Kittle is in the middle of his five-year, $75 million contract extension he signed in advance of the 2020 season, and he won't become a free agent until 2026, according to Spotrac.
After accounting for a relatively affordable $7.4 million against the cap in 2022, Kittle's cap hit for this year is going to jump significantly, totaling over $18 million.
Because of that, a touchdown-generating chemistry between both he and Purdy would be beneficial to San Francisco, both in terms of on-field results and financially.
Predicting George Kittle's stat line with 49ers in 2023
Unfortunately, we have to take into account that Kittle has a high probability of suffering some sort of injury this season. If there's good news, though, he's missed a serious chunk of time only once in his career, and that was back in 2020 when seemingly the entire 49ers roster was on injured reserve at one point or another.
What's more likely is Kittle ends up playing 14 or 15 of a possible 17 regular-season games in 2023.
Cresting 1,000 yards receiving is surely a possibility, even if it means taking away touches (and yards) from players like McCaffrey, Aiyuk and wide receiver Deebo Samuel. While plausible, a more logical prediction probably has Kittle between 800 and 900 receiving yards but with a bump in touchdowns over his per-year average.
Plus, with Purdy not having the strongest of arms and coming off offseason elbow surgery, he might be poised to rely more on Kittle's well-established yards-after-the-catch reputation.
Read more: Did you know George Kittle has a haunted house? He does, it scared Sam Darnold
He might not meet last year's 11 scores again this season. However, let's go ahead and predict between eight to 10 touchdowns instead, which would still be an improvement over all other years Kittle has played aside from 2022.
Oh, and Kittle will still be an elite blocker, making him the best true all-around tight end in the NFL today.