The 49ers have a dilemma. The core of their roster is too old and too expensive. They need to cut some of these overpaid veterans and reload for the future. Which brings us to George Kittle. Next year he'll be 32.
The core of their roster is too old and too expensive. They need to cut some of these overpaid veterans and reload for the future.
Which brings us to George Kittle. Next year he'll be 32, he'll be in the final year of his contract and his salary cap number will be a grotesque $22.1 million. That's too much money for a tight end. The 49ers need to either restructure his contract by extending it, or they need to trade him. Kittle is old for an NFL player, he misses a couple games every season and he always seems to be playing through an injury even though he always says he's healthy. He's a tough guy who doesn't use injuries as an excuse. But he's a physical player, and physical players tend to get injured.
Despite all of that, he's having arguably the best season of his career and he has been the best player on the 49ers in 2024. While the rest of the team licks its wounds from the Super Bowl defeat in February, Kittle has put that loss behind him and played inspired football every week for a team that's going nowhere. He has become the heart and soul of a team that's losing confidence. Without Kittle, the 49ers would crumble worse than they already have.
He has earned another multi-year extension with the 49ers. They can count on him him to maintain his standard of performance no matter what. He should retire with the 49ers if he chooses to.Grant Cohn has covered the San Francisco 49ers daily since 2011. He spent the first nine years of his career with the Santa Rosa Press Democrat where he wrote the Inside the 49ers blog and covered famous coaches and athletes such as Jim Harbaugh, Colin Kaepernick and Patrick Willis.
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