George Kittle

31-Year-Old Tight EndTE

San Francisco 49ers

2024 Receiving Stats

REC

YDS

1106

AVG

14.2

TAR

2025 Projections

REC

YDS

AVG

TAR

Unlock Our Projections

2025 Fantasy Outlook

Kittle has aged like fine wine, with his 2,126 receiving yards over the last two seasons easily the most among tight ends. His 14 TDs in that span are third most, trailing only the 17 apiece of Sam LaPorta and Mark Andrews. While he seems to suffer multiple injuries every year, Kittle often manages to fight through them, falling shy of 14 regular-season appearances just one in eight NFL seasons. He has exceeded 1,000 yards four times, including each of the last two seasons. There is one less mouth to feed in San Francisco after WR Deebo Samuel was traded to Washington in the offseason, while RB Christian McCaffrey and WR Brandon Aiyuk are both coming back from season-ending injuries, leaving Kittle as the safest option for 2025 among San Francisco’s big-name skill position players. Relative to other top tight ends, Kittle relies on per-target efficiency rather than volume, having finished last season seventh at the position with 94 targets. He made up for it by ranking second among TEs (with 50-plus receptions) in both yards before the catch (7.5) and yards after the catch (6.7), sporting a high catch rate and tons of YAC despite not only seeing short targets. Kittle's talent is the main driver of that annual efficiency, but it helps his production if Kyle Shanahan and QB Brock Purdy have the passing game humming in general -- and even more so when they end up playing without McCaffrey or one of the starting wide receivers. Read Past Outlooks

RANKS

Overall

Tight End

Height 6'4"

Weight 250

DOB 10/9/1993

College Iowa

Drafted 5th Rd 2017 #146 Overall

Discussing extension

TESan Francisco 49ers

February 21, 2025

Kittle's agent has already discussed a contract extension with the 49ers, Eric Branch of the San Francisco Chronicle reports.

ANALYSIS
Kittle's contract runs through 2025, and while the 49ers may be wary of committing to the 31-year-old beyond the next few years, they'll likely work toward a deal that gives him guarantees for the upcoming season and 2026 while reducing his 2025 cap hit ($22.02 million). Kittle recently revealed that he played with cracked ribs for much of 2024, although it wasn't evident in his performance -- he had the second-most receiving yards (1,106) and second-most TDs (eight) of his eight-year career while posting personal bests for catch rate (83.0 percent) and yards per target (11.8). He did miss two games, due to separate hamstring injuries, and played just 29 percent of snaps in the season finale. In his 14 full games, Kittle fell shy of 40 yards just once and scored double-digit PPR points 12 times, leading tight ends in fantasy points per game in both PPR and standard-scoring formats.

Read More News

NFL Stats

Loading NFL Stats...

Fantasy/Red Zone Stats

See red zone opportunities inside the 20, 10 and 5-yard lines along with the percentage of time they converted the opportunity into a touchdown.

Loading Fantasy/Red Zone Stats...

Advanced NFL Stats

How do George Kittle's 2024 advanced stats compare to other tight ends?

This section compares his advanced stats with players at the same position. The bar represents the player's percentile rank. For example, if the bar is halfway across, then the player falls into the 50th percentile for that metric and it would be considered average. The longer the bar, the better it is for the player.

Air Yards Per Game

49.8

Air Yards Per Snap

0.97

% Team Air Yards

17.5%

% Team Targets

18.3%

Avg Depth of Target

7.9 Yds

Catch Rate

83.0%

Drop Rate

2.1%

Avg Yds After Catch

6.9

% Targeted On Route

24.2%

Avg Yds Per Route Run

2.85

Loading Advanced NFL Stats...

2024

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018

2017

2024 NFL Game Log

Calculate Stats Over Time

Just click on any two dates.

Scoring

Standard

PPR

Half PPR

FanDuel

DraftKings

Yahoo DFS

Loading Game Log...

2023 NFL Game Log

Calculate Stats Over Time

Just click on any two dates.

Scoring

Standard

PPR

Half PPR

FanDuel

DraftKings

Yahoo DFS

Loading Game Log...

2022 NFL Game Log

Calculate Stats Over Time

Just click on any two dates.

Scoring

Standard

PPR

Half PPR

FanDuel

DraftKings

Yahoo DFS

Loading Game Log...

2021 NFL Game Log

Calculate Stats Over Time

Just click on any two dates.

Scoring

Standard

PPR

Half PPR

FanDuel

DraftKings

Yahoo DFS

Loading Game Log...

2020 NFL Game Log

Calculate Stats Over Time

Just click on any two dates.

Scoring

Standard

PPR

Half PPR

FanDuel

DraftKings

Yahoo DFS

Loading Game Log...

2019 NFL Game Log

Calculate Stats Over Time

Just click on any two dates.

Scoring

Standard

PPR

Half PPR

FanDuel

DraftKings

Yahoo DFS

Loading Game Log...

2018 NFL Game Log

Calculate Stats Over Time

Just click on any two dates.

Scoring

Standard

PPR

Half PPR

FanDuel

DraftKings

Yahoo DFS

Loading Game Log...

2017 NFL Game Log

Calculate Stats Over Time

Just click on any two dates.

Scoring

Standard

PPR

Half PPR

FanDuel

DraftKings

Yahoo DFS

Loading Game Log...

Snap Distribution / Depth Chart

Snap Counts

Snap %

49ers 2024 TE Snap Distribution See more data like this | See last season's snap counts

G.George Kittle

E.Eric Saubert

J.Jake Tonges

B.Brayden Willis

#% of Team Snaps

77175%

35435%

313%

252%

Loading Weekly Snap Counts...

#1 TE

49ers

View Full Depth Chart

How often does George Kittle run a route when on the field for a pass play?

This data will let you see how George Kittle and the other tight ends for the 49ers are being used. Some tight ends may have a lot of snaps, but they're not that useful for fantasy purposes because they're not actually running routes. This data will help you see when this is the case.

George Kittle

388 routes 94 targets

← More Blocking

% Routes Run

More Receiving →

50%

Luke Farrell

90 routes 17 targets

24%

Jake Tonges

10 routes 0 targets

32%

Brayden Willis

7 routes 2 targets

28%

Receiving Alignment Breakdown

See where George Kittle lined up on the field and how he performed at each spot.

Detailed

Grouped

Side

Loading Alignment Breakdown...

Loading Team Alignment Breakdown...

2024 George Kittle Split Stats

Loading NFL Split Stats...

Measurables Review View College Player Page

How do George Kittle's measurables compare to other tight ends?

This section compares his draft workout metrics with players at the same position. The bar represents the player's percentile rank. For example, if the bar is halfway across, then the player falls into the 50th percentile for that metric and it would be considered average.

Height

6' 4"

Weight

250 lbs

40-Yard Dash

4.52 sec

Vertical Jump

35.0 in

Broad Jump

132 in

Bench Press

18 reps

Hand Length

9.25 in

Arm Length

33.13 in

Recent RotoWire Articles Featuring George Kittle See More

Best Ball Journal: Post-Combine ADP Movement Among Rookies

34 days ago

Jerry Donabedian looks at rookies whose ADPs shifted after the NFL Scouting Combine, including some like Ashton Jeanty who didn't even go through workouts.

NFL Best Ball Strategy: Planning Specific Stacks on Underdog and Drafters

51 days ago

Jerry Donabedian assesses the difficulty of drafting various teammate stacks, including Denver's Bo Nix, Courtland Sutton and Marvin Mims.

NFL Best Ball Strategy: Analyzing 2025 ADPs on Underdog and Drafters

53 days ago

The popularity of Cincinnati stacks seems to be inflating ADPs for Tee Higgins and Joe Burrow. RW's Jerry Donabedian has the full scoop, looking at early ADP results from two best-ball sites.

Fantasy Football Rankings: Initial PPR Top 200 for 2025

58 days ago

RotoWire's Jerry Donabedian compares his Top 200 to early ADP and finds that most drafters don't share his optimism about Bucky Irving and Courtland Sutton.

Fantasy Football Rankings for 2025

79 days ago

It's never too early to start preparing for 2025 fantasy football drafts. Check out our expert fantasy rankings by position ahead of the next NFL season.

Past Fantasy Outlooks

2024

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018

2017

Kittle quietly jumped back over the 1,000-yard threshold for the first time since 2019, leading all tight ends with 1,020 receiving yards last season. He also tied for second at the position with six touchdowns, making the most of pedestrian volume. With plenty of other mouths to feed in San Francisco -- namely Christian McCaffrey, Brandon Aiyuk and Deebo Samuel -- Kittle had to settle for 90 targets, tied for ninth among tight ends. Kittle’s robust average of 7.5 yards after the catch coupled with Brock Purdy’s accuracy allowed the tight end to produce a career-high 11.3 yards per target, following five straight years between 8.9 and 10.1 YPT. He also tied a career high with 16 games played, a mark Kittle previously reached in only 2018. From a health and efficiency perspective, 2023 was about as good as it gets for Kittle, though there is some risk of a down year in 2024 if he suffers regression in those areas and doesn't get more targets per game to make up for it. While Kittle is recovering from offseason core muscle surgery, McCaffrey and Samuel have their own checkered injury histories and Aiyuk is embroiled in contentious extension talks. There are a few avenues that could lead Purdy to pepper Kittle with more targets, but it's also possible those lanes don't open up until next offseason.

Kittle’s 2022 was a mixed bag. Though he missed only two games due to injury after being absent for 11 over the previous two seasons, Kittle’s catch rate dipped to 69.8 percent after three consecutive years over 75 percent. The 29-year-old tight end’s 51 yards per game marked his lowest average since his rookie season in 2017, but he papered over that deficiency with a career-high 11 touchdowns, blowing away his previous best of six. Seven of those touchdowns came in the last four games of the season, all of which were started by rookie QB Brock Purdy. Kittle’s chemistry with Purdy suggests the uptick in scoring can’t entirely be written off as an outlier, but Purdy may not be available to start the season after tearing his UCL in the playoffs, so San Francisco could open the campaign with Trey Lance or Sam Darnold under center. The 49ers have plenty of mouths to feed, with Deebo Samuel, Brandon Aiyuk and Christian McCaffrey all having averaged more targets per game than Kittle in 2022, so Kittle’s boom-or-bust yardage totals (five games over 80 and eight games under 30 last season) may just be the new norm. If that’s the case, Kittle will need to keep finding the end zone regularly to maintain a spot in the upper echelon of fantasy tight ends.

Kittle is extremely effective on a per-game basis, but injuries have taken off some of the shine. After averaging 86.5 catches for 1,215 yards and five touchdowns between the 2018 and 2019 seasons, Kittle was limited to just 22 of a possible 33 appearances the last two seasons, bothered mostly by knee, foot and calf injuries. The last two required stints on injured reserve, though Kittle wound up sitting out only three games last season after missing half the 2020 campaign. Considering he got off to a slow start and attempted to play hurt a couple times last season, Kittle’s top-6 numbers among tight ends in catches (71) and receiving yards (910) don’t look too bad at all. He also did not lose any of his signature ability to elude defenders after the catch, finishing third behind Travis Kelce and Mark Andrews among tight ends and 17th among all players with 465 yards after the catch. The star tight end rarely comes off the field, and his toughness and blocking are just as important for San Francisco’s smash-mouth style as his pass-catching and YAC abilities. Kittle has thrived despite lackluster quarterback play, so San Francisco’s uncertainty under center this season is unlikely to impact his performance much. It is worth noting, however, he was targeted only twice in Trey Lance’s lone start for which Kittle was available last season.

Kittle entered last season with a five-year, $75 million extension in hand, hoping to take aim at his NFL single-season tight end record of 1,377 receiving yards. Instead, it was Travis Kelce who broke the record, while an MCL sprain and a foot fracture limited Kittle to eight games for the 49ers. Kittle played at least 14 games in each of his first three NFL seasons, but that was largely on account of playing through injuries rather than avoiding them. Even last year, Kittle was fortunate to play as many games as he did, returning from the foot fracture to total 11 receptions for 160 yards in Weeks 16 and 17. He finished the season with only two touchdowns, but his numbers otherwise prorate to 96 catches for 1,268 yards — right in line with preseason expectations. It was Kittle's third consecutive season averaging more than 75 receiving yards per game, so it is his health that has been the key variable for fantasy purposes, while the athleticism, skill and target volume have been constants. Part of the issue is simply Kittle's physical playing style, subjecting himself to frequent, high-speed collisions as both a blocker and ballcarrier. Of course, that's also part of what makes him so great, and part of what keeps him on the field for all three downs.

Kittle is rapidly building a case as one of the better fifth-round draft picks in NFL history, ripping off back-to-back 1,000-yard seasons at a position where only two or three players reach that mark each year. He couldn't quite match his tight end yardage record from 2018, but Kittle was the furthest thing from a slouch last season, ranking 12th among pass catchers in yards per game (75.2) and 14th in yards per target (9.8). His average target depth dropped from 7.3 yards to 5.7, and while there was a corresponding dip in yards per reception, Kittle's catch rate shot up to elite territory at 79.4 percent. He may not get the same downfield opportunities as Travis Kelce, but Kittle is even better than his TE counterpart at picking up yards after the catch, and the 26-year-old also had lower drop rates in both 2018 and 2019. Kittle's greatest weaknesses - at least from a fantasy standpoint - are actually strengths from the 49ers' perspective. He plays too hard, he blocks too much and sometimes he can be too invested in tasks that don't produce stats. Kittle has missed only three games in three seasons, but he's played through a torn shoulder labrum, fractured rib cartilage and a bone spur in his ankle. That probably makes Kelce the safer TE1 choice, but Kittle is the one with superhuman talent.

It wasn't just that Kittle had a career season, he had a season that was almost too good to be true. And it's hard to know how to react to that type of year. Kittle and Travis Kelce played ping-pong with the single-season yardage record for a tight end; when the smoke cleared, Kittle won. That's an incredible accomplishment for any player, but then underscore that Kittle did it playing most of his season with undrafted quarterback Nick Mullens (Kelce, meanwhile, worked with the NFL MVP). The 49ers also had pedestrian wideouts; every late-season opponent took to the field with the primary goal of stopping Kittle. And let's not forget Kittle was scarcely used at Iowa, catching just 48 passes in four college seasons. The 49ers need to prioritize Kittle more in the scoring area. He only had five touchdowns despite last year's banner season, and three came from long distance (43, 82, 85 yards). The other two spikes were from the 10- and 5-yard line. It wasn't for a lack of trying, as Kittle was fourth among tight ends in red-zone targets. A full season of Jimmy Garoppolo at quarterback could go a long way toward fixing this deficiency. Garoppolo, in a lot of ways, is the elephant in the San Francisco huddle. Can he be trusted to play a full season? Have we seen enough of him to definitively conclude he's a difference-maker? How you feel about Garoppolo goes a long way toward solving your Kittle stance in 2019.

Tight end is a hard position, especially for rookies. Kittle's first-year haul might not seem like much, but since the merger, only 16 rookie tight ends have produced more catches than Kittle's 43. His production got a modest bump when Jimmy Garoppolo took over: five games, 15-224-1, a catch rate of 78.9 percent. And now we get to dig into the growth seasons for a typical tight end. Kittle is a better athlete than blocker, and that's fine with us. At 6-4, 250, he blazed a 4.52 40 at the 2017 combine, also displaying explosiveness with strong marks in the vertical jump (35 inches) and broad jump (132 inches). Kittle tied for fifth among tight ends with 16 red-zone targets last year, but most of those were from quarterbacks far worse than Garoppolo (hence the modest TD total). The 49ers have a lot of receiving turf to be claimed, following a season in which no player had more than 59 receptions or four TD catches. Garoppolo, of course, didn't start the year with the team. Make sure Kittle is prominent on your list of potential breakout players. Heck, he could be a cheaper way to get Garoppolo and Kyle Shanahan exposure, if you miss on some of the buzzier targets. Kittle did suffer a separated shoulder in the first week of the preseason, but the 49ers expect him to be back for their regular-season opener.

Kittle could be in store for a bigger role than he thought his rookie year after the Niners sent incumbent No. 1 tight end Vance McDonald to the Steelers in an August trade. The fifth-round draft pick possesses surprising athleticism (4.52 speed) for a 6-4, 247-pound blocking tight end and could carve out a solid role as a check-down option for QB Brian Hoyer.

More Fantasy News

Mild output to finish strong season

TESan Francisco 49ers

January 5, 2025

Kittle brought in two of three targets for 27 yards in Sunday's 47-24 loss to the Cardinals.