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Nick Wagoner
A few moments after putting the final touch to his eighth NFL season, the tight winger George Kittle said that he wanted to end his career where she started: with the 49ers of San Francisco.
Kittle has made an important step towards achieving this objective while he and the Niners have accepted an extension of a contract of $ 76.4 million over four years which will maintain him with the only NFL team he has ever known, he told the Podcast “Bussin ‘with the boys on Tuesday.
The extension includes $ 40 million in guaranteed money and will almost certainly reduce the previously planned Kittle Ceiling number of $ 22,085,000. This ceiling stroke would exceed its previous highest ceiling by just under $ 10 million.
It also places Kittle, 31 years old. Who swore to continue playing “until the wheels fall”, in a position to play his whole career with the team that selected it with a choice of fifth round in the draft of the 2017 NFL.
“My goal is to wear red and gold all my career,” Kittle told ESPN on January 5.
Even if the extension does not guarantee that this will happen, this undoubtedly gives Kittle a strong chance of achieving a more short -term goal: to join the 10 -year club of the 49ers. This club honors players who played at least 10 consecutive seasons in San Francisco and include 51 players since the team’s creation in 1946. The club has not added anyone since the Joe Staley tackle in 2017.
Kittle will enter its ninth season in 2025, which means that it should simply play one of the additional years added to its agreement to be the next member. This is something that Kittle called “a huge goal”.
If Kittle continues to something near his current trajectory, he should have no problem pushing at 10 years in San Francisco and beyond, because he leaves one of his best seasons.
In 2024, Kittle ranked third among the tight ends in the reception yards (1,106), tied in the second row of the touchdown (8) and was the first in yards by reception (14,2) while continuing to be a key blocker in the precipitated attack of San Francisco. This production won him his sixth selection of Pro Bowl and another Honor All-Pro (second team, his fifth sign of head on the first or second All-Pro teams).
Kittle has also become one of the five ends tight in the history of the League to have four reception seasons or more than 1,000 yards, alongside Travis Kelce (seven), Rob Gronkowski, Tony Gonzalez and Jason Witten (four each). He also exceeded Gronkowski for the second yards most receptive by a tight end during his first eight seasons in the NFL (7,380), being only Kelce.
“(He is) better over time,” said secondary Fred Warner. “Like good wine. He has a big job. He has always been great, but the fact that he is doing the pieces he is doing at the moment of his career has been phenomenal.”
