George Kittle’s lack of production not worrying Kyle Shanahan

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George Kittle has been relatively silent as a pass catcher for the 49ers four weeks in a row. His absence in the passing game isn’t worrisome for head coach Kyle Shanahan.

Shanahan told reporters in a Monday conference call that Kittle’s relative lack of production is partly because of how defense play him and what it does to free up other players.

“It’s just mixing in things when they have help over the middle, we’ve thrown to George a lot in those situations and people kind of know that, so they go to stop him there,” Shanahan said. “And we have to do a better job of finding other ways to get him the ball, but I also know when he is attracting coverages that makes it a hell of a lot easier to get other people in some good situations. But George usually comes around. He’ll end up getting his balls.”

Kittle over the last four games has just nine catches for 78 yards and no touchdowns. That immediately followed a three game stretch where Kittle hauled in 28 passes for 425 yards and three touchdowns.

To Shanahan’s point though, Kittle’s disappearance as a receiver has been accompanied by the emergence of Jauan Jennings and the re-emergence of Brandon Aiyuk. The 49ers have enough playmakers to move the ball when defenses take Kittle away.

However, Shanahan is right in needing to find ways to get him the ball. Kittle is too talented to use primarily as a run blocker and decoy in the passing game. The 49ers offense needs to hit a new level if they’re going to swing an upset in Green Bay, and that means getting Kittle involved. They can’t win consistently without him getting more looks and consequently putting up bigger numbers.

Cowboys’ Jayron Kearse issues warning to George Kittle before kickoff

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If the Dallas Cowboys are going to pull out their first playoff win in years against the San Francisco 49ers, Mike McCarthy will need to come up with a plan to take star tight end George Kittle out of the game. Strong safety Jayron Kearse may have a big hand in accomplishing that goal.

After bouncing around as a backup between teams like the Vikings and Lions for five seasons, the former 244th overall pick has quickly become a mainstay of the Dallas defense. Quick enough cover ground in zone and big enough at 6-4 and 215 pounds to clamp tight ends, Kearse is a weapon for a very talented Dallas secondary.

Kittle is a whole different beast, as he combines the physicality of an in-line blocker with the speed and route-running intuition of a receiver. Kearse doesn’t seem that worried about how he will match up against a player of Kittle’s stature. In fact, he thinks Kittle should be worried about him.

Kearse said that he was “ticked off” at the constant coverage and analysis of this game that makes it seem like Kittle is poised to romp all over the Cowboys. Kearse noted that Kittle “has to go against me, too.” These are bold words right before a playoff game against a team that has made Kittle the foundation of the passing game.

Cowboys safety Jayron Kearse called 49ers TE George Kittle one of the best TEs in the NFL, if not the best, but added: “He has to go against me, too. I kind of get ticked off when I’m being asked Kittle this and Kittle that. He has to play me, too. We’ll see how that shakes out.” — Jon Machota (@jonmachota) January 14, 2022

Jayron Kearse and the Dallas Cowboys must neutralize George Kittle.

While Kittle missed three games this season due to injury, he still amassed over 900 receiving yards and was named a Pro Bowler. Kyle Shanahan will likely try to get the ball out of Jimmy Garoppolo’s hands as quickly as possible in order to neutralize Dallas’ pass rush.

Kearse is not just going to sit back and take it, however. With a pair of interceptions and a career-high 101 tackles (he came into this season with 138 in five years), Kearse has enough success against elite tight ends like Travis Kelce for Dallas not to worry about this matchup too much.

Kelce was limited to just five catches and 74 yards against Kearse, with one broken play helping him get most of those yards. Kittle might be a bit more physical, but a player like Kearse and a football mind with the acumen of Dan Quinn should be more than adept at slowing Kittle down just a tad.

Jayron Kearse is right there for the INT! #DallasCowboys 📺: #DALvsKC on FOX

📱: NFL app pic.twitter.com/pw5XegLcAL — NFL (@NFL) November 21, 2021

Even though the 49ers have names like Deebo Samuel and Elijah Mitchell on that offense, Kittle is the guy they look for when it’s third down and you need a conversion. Kearse will have a ton on his plate, but he should be able to perform.

George Kittle fantasy outlook: Start or sit 49ers TE in the Wild Card round?

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The San Francisco 49ers will hit the road for their Wild Card round matchup at the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday in a battle of two classic NFC playoff rivals.

49ers tight end George Kittle started to cool down in the final weeks of the regular season and we’ll go over his viability as an option for DraftKings Daily Fantasy lineups this weekend.

Fantasy Football analysis: 49ers TE George Kittle ($6,000)

Kittle came just 90 yards short of posting another 1,000 receiving yard season but he really slowed down in production down the stretch. Over the final three games of the season, he combined for just eight catches for just 60 yards and yielded a combined 14.6 fantasy points during that period.

With Deebo Samuel and Brandon Aiyuk producing in the passing game, someone had to be the odd man out and it was Kittle.

Fantasy Start/Sit Recommendation

Despite Kittle’s individual struggles, he’s always worth a start just for the potential of what he could do if he’s targeted early and often.

George Kittle just taught thousands of children a very, very bad word

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George Kittle carried on Cordarrelle Patterson’s tradition of dropping an audible F-bomb on the Nickelodeon telecast of an NFL playoff game.

Nobody drops an F-bomb on a Nickelodeon telecast quite like George Kittle, unless you are Cordarrelle Patterson.

There is nothing quite like being part of new traditions. Shane Beamer took one for the team to make the Duke’s Mayo Bowl easily the most elite non-New Year’s Six bowl in all of college football. Though Kittle and Patterson’s slips of the tongue were not as intentional as a sweet, delicious mayonnaise bath, don’t expect the San Francisco 49ers tight end to be slimed as this year’s NVP.

If the 49ers beat the Dallas Cowboys, it means Jimmy Garoppolo will win NVP, and then not play for them next year. As tradition, that is what happened to last year’s NVP in former Chicago Bears quarterback Mitchell Trubisky.

George Kittle dropping an F-bomb on Nickelodeon pic.twitter.com/zEEWPvPqQ2 — Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) January 16, 2022

George Kittle expands thousands of children’s vocabularies in the worst way

When most of these kids watching this telecast are still learning how to spell, Kittle gave them a four-letter word no parent is ready to explain what it means. Oh, it certainly gets the point across, no matter if it is a noun, an adjective or a gerund. This is same word that forced a gross red bar of soap into poor Ralphie Parker’s mouth, right before he shot his eye out with a Red Ryder BB gun.

So while ViacomCBS tries to figure out how to keep full-grown, sweaty men from dropping F-bombs on their children’s channel’s simulcast, let’s just appreciate the tradition being alive for a second season. Ultimately, it may serve CBS going with, I don’t know, an AFC matchup in next Super Wild Card Weekend. Tony Romo is great and all, but these F-bombs require earmuffs!

Let’s be real. They need a new award after this game: The Patterson-Kittle MAF for the most audible F**K!

Nevius: In appreciation of George Kittle, the 49ers’ lovable goofball

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Nevius: In appreciation of George Kittle, the 49ers’ lovable goofball

Before the 49ers’ season ends — and I’m not saying that it will Sunday — we need to address an oversight.

I don’t think we are giving George Kittle enough appreciation.

Oh, he’s appreciated, you say. He’s routinely included in the top three tight ends in football. And when he signed a five-year, $75 million contract, it was the highest salary for the position in NFL history.

But the more you watch sports, the more you realize that every good team has some guys who set the tone. Steph Curry does it for the Warriors.

And I’d say Kittle, along with a few others like Fred Warner, is one of those guys for the 49ers.

We definitely know that when it comes to being a hype man, he’s all in. During games he exhibits the rambunctious enthusiasm of a six-year-old on a sugar high in a bouncy house.

Asked about Kittle’s oversized celebrations after big plays, Kyle Shanahan deadpanned that he’s kind of a menace.

“I run from Kittle after good things,” Shanahan said. “Because he will not change how he hits people, no matter what … he just gets too excited.”

Which is swell. Every team likes to have a cheerleader. On basketball teams it is often the guy at the end of the bench, waving a towel.

But Kittle is indisputably a huge part of the 49ers’ offense. He set the NFL record for receiving yards by a tight end in 2018 and is currently on the cusp of his third 1,000-yard receiving season in five years.

But the splash plays are the ones that made his rep.

Fans will recall a sit-up-and-take-notice catch in 2018 against the Raiders on Thursday Night Football, when he split two defenders and reached up with one hand to snag a pass out of the air for what turned out to be a 71-yard gain.

And then there was his reaction.

“I told him, ‘Dude, that catch was insane,’” DeForest Buckner said at the time. “And he was like, ‘Bro, my eyes were closed.’”

That’s our guy. Sent to the interview podium after last week’s epic game with the Rams, he was asked how stressful it was to fall badly behind in the first half.

“It wasn’t stressful at all,” he said without the hint of a smile. “Our game plan was to fall behind 17-0.”

And just to be clear, we are saying Kittle is a goofball. Proudly, determinedly goofy.

There are videos of him photo-bombing a Jimmy Garoppolo interview on national TV, waving and miming “Hi Mom” in the background. There’s a tape of him trotting onto the field toward the 49ers’ huddle and glancing over to the opposition’s defense and chirping cheerfully, “Hi guys.”

He promoted an NFL “Tight Ends Day” (which the league actually adopted) and insists on mentioning it repeatedly.

But you have to admit Kittle has a way of diffusing a difficult situation.

There’s a YouTube clip of Garoppolo throwing a bad interception. He was looking for Kittle, but the defender cut in front, grabbed the pass and was quickly brought down by Kittle.

The next shot is on the sideline. Garoppolo, looking very serious, has his helmet on and is firing warm-up throws to someone. Kittle is on the bench with his helmet off. He has a thought.

“Jim!” he yells. “Hey Jimmy!” (Garoppolo looks over) “Good news. I got a tackle on National Tight Ends Day.”

I’d like to hear a frank conversation with Garoppolo on how much Kittle has helped him navigate this very stressful season. And previous seasons.

We know they are tight. We’ve been through the T-shirt wars, where each of them wore a T-shirt with the other’s likeness. Kittle, naturally, went with a beefcake shot of a shirtless Garoppolo, which actually went viral for a bit.

There’s also clearly banter on the sideline that keeps everyone loose.

At one point a video shows Kittle talking to Garoppolo during a game. He says he needs 14 more receiving yards to get to 100, because of course it is “Tight End Day.”

Garoppolo seems unimpressed.

“We’ve got to give the people what they want, Jim,” Kittle says. “They’re not here to see you. They’re here to see us.”

And that’s not to mention when NFL Films caught Kittle and Joe Staley doing exaggerated Canadian accents on the sideline during a 2019 game with the Rams, despite the fact that the game was tied 7-7.

“I don’t know if it is gonna snow today, eh,” Kittle says, in full Fargo. “I brought my toboggan just in case.”

There have even been times when Kittle has softened an awkward moment for his coach.

During the most contentious period of the Trey Lance-vs.-Garoppolo debate, Shanahan was asked if he would guarantee Garoppolo would be on the roster. Shanahan gave a weirdly dark answer about how he couldn’t “guarantee anyone in the world will be alive on Sunday.”

Kittle was next up to the podium and he began with, “I’ll call you on Sunday, coach, to let you know I’m alive.”

Well they’re alive now. After some rocky moments, the 49ers are in the playoffs. There’s no telling what will happen, but we can say for sure that they wouldn’t be here without the Kittle effect, on and off the field.

Because, he says, “Football’s a lot easier when you’re having fun.”

Rage on, GK.