49ers tight end George Kittle is officially listed as questionable for Sunday’s season opener with a groin issue, but listening to him speak in the locker room on Thursday, he has no doubt he’ll be out there with his teammates.
“I have the best job in the world besides you (reporters),” Kittle said. “Just excited to play on Sunday, honestly.”
Kittle has been banged-up throughout most of his career and it appears that he won’t get a clean start in 2023. Coach Kyle Shanahan told reporters Friday that Kittle had a setback after the Los Angeles Chargers preseason finale, as the tight end was a limited participant throughout practice this week. Kittle didn’t look to be 100 percent, but he still moved around well during the sessions in Santa Clara.
The veteran tight end said he’s looking forward to building on his rapport with Brock Purdy this year. Kittle turned into something of a touchdown magnet down the stretch after Purdy took over, as the duo connected on seven touchdowns in the final four weeks of the regular season.
Kittle and the Niners have been through a lot of quarterback turnover throughout the years – as he’s caught passes from guys like Jimmy Garoppolo, C.J. Beathard, Nick Mullens, Brian Hoyer and Trey Lance since his rookie season in 2017. Garoppolo was the only quarterback to start the entire season (2019) in that timeframe and Kittle is hoping that Purdy has better luck staying on the field in 2023.
“All I want is one quarterback to play for the whole season,” Kittle said. “You want that just so you can build chemistry and you can get used to each other running routes. There’s the route that’s called on paper and then you can run it a certain way. Just get a feel off each other. He did a great job with that with Deebo (Samuel), (Brandon) Aiyuk, Christian (McCaffrey), Juice (Kyle Juszczyk), anybody that was out there, Jauan (Jennings). He just got comfortable with everybody out there and that’s what you want. I think we laid the foundation last year and we’re gonna continue to build on that this season.”
What’s the secret to Kittle’s success with Purdy? Well, a closed mouth doesn’t get fed.
“I just told Brock I was open all the time,” Kittle joked. “I think he just believed me. I dunno if anyone else has believed me, but I just tell ‘em I’m open all the time. What Brock does a great job of, is he keeps his head up and gets out of the pocket and extends those plays. … It’s not gonna be scripted, but he does a great job of extending those plays and creating his own script.”
