George Kittle says he lost 30 pounds in the offseason, after a surgery prevented him from hitting the weight room as heavily as usual. That makes it reasonable to wonder if he’ll be in top form by opening day.
“I couldn’t lift,” Kittle said on the “Bussin with the Boys” podcast (as reported by NBC Sports Bay Area). “I couldn’t do any upper body because of my shoulder and my rib, and I couldn’t do lower [body] because of my core surgery. ... I didn’t lift from the Super Bowl until like almost mid-March. I went a month without doing anything. I wasn’t supposed to do anything.”
Kittle played at 250 pounds last year. He says he’s back up to 240 now, making it seem like he’ll be fine.
But he’s a player who’s tended to have problems staying healthy, in part because he aggressively throws his body around as a blocker. He’s played a full season only once in his seven-year career. He missed half of the 2020 season, and he’s missed 1-3 games in each of his last four other seasons.
When healthy, however, he’s one of the best (at his position) at getting downfield for big catches. He averaged 15.7 yards per catch last year, best among tight ends.
There were 38 tight ends last year who saw at least 40 targets. Kittle averaged over a yard more per pass play than all of them. (That’s including both catches and incompletions).
| TIGHT ENDS: AVERAGE YARDS PER PASS PLAY | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rk | Player | Tgt | Rec | Yards | TD | Yds/Tgt | Avg |
| 1. | George Kittle, S.F. | 90 | 65 | 1,020 | 6 | 11.3 | 15.7 |
| 2. | Isaiah Likely, Balt. | 40 | 30 | 411 | 5 | 10.3 | 13.7 |
| 3. | Noah Fant, Sea. | 43 | 32 | 414 | 0 | 9.6 | 12.9 |
| 4. | Mark Andrews, Balt. | 61 | 45 | 544 | 6 | 8.9 | 12.1 |
| 5. | Tucker Kraft, G.B. | 40 | 31 | 355 | 2 | 8.9 | 11.5 |
| 6. | Durham Smythe, Mia. | 43 | 35 | 366 | 0 | 8.5 | 10.5 |
| 7. | Jonnu Smith, Atl. | 70 | 50 | 582 | 3 | 8.3 | 11.6 |
| 8. | Travis Kelce, K.C. | 121 | 93 | 984 | 5 | 8.1 | 10.6 |
| 9. | Cole Kmet, Chi. | 90 | 73 | 719 | 6 | 8.0 | 9.9 |
| 10. | Trey McBride, Ari. | 106 | 81 | 825 | 3 | 7.8 | 10.2 |
| 11. | Luke Musgrave, G.B. | 46 | 34 | 352 | 1 | 7.7 | 10.4 |
| 12. | Michael Mayer, L.V. | 40 | 27 | 304 | 2 | 7.6 | 11.3 |
| 13. | T.J. Hockenson, Min. | 127 | 95 | 960 | 5 | 7.6 | 10.1 |
| 14. | Jake Ferguson, Dall. | 102 | 71 | 761 | 5 | 7.5 | 10.7 |
| 15. | Darren Waller, NYG | 74 | 52 | 552 | 1 | 7.5 | 10.6 |
| 16. | Noah Gray, K.C. | 41 | 28 | 305 | 2 | 7.4 | 10.9 |
| 17. | Kyle Pitts, Atl. | 90 | 53 | 667 | 3 | 7.4 | 12.6 |
| 18. | Sam LaPorta, Det. | 120 | 86 | 889 | 10 | 7.4 | 10.3 |
| 19. | Dalton Kincaid, Buff. | 91 | 73 | 673 | 2 | 7.4 | 9.2 |
| 20. | Kylen Granson, Ind. | 50 | 30 | 368 | 1 | 7.4 | 12.3 |
| 21. | Taysom Hill, N.O. | 40 | 33 | 291 | 2 | 7.3 | 8.8 |
| 22. | Dalton Schultz, Hou. | 88 | 59 | 635 | 5 | 7.2 | 10.8 |
| 23. | David Njoku, Cle. | 123 | 81 | 882 | 6 | 7.2 | 10.9 |
| 24. | Tyler Conklin, NYJ | 87 | 61 | 621 | 0 | 7.1 | 10.2 |
| 25. | Dallas Goedert, Phil. | 83 | 59 | 592 | 3 | 7.1 | 10.0 |
| 26. | Tyler Higbee, LAR | 70 | 47 | 495 | 2 | 7.1 | 10.5 |
| 27. | Tanner Hudson, Cin. | 50 | 39 | 352 | 1 | 7.0 | 9.0 |
| 28. | Donald Parham, LAC | 41 | 27 | 285 | 4 | 7.0 | 10.6 |
| 29. | Hunter Henry, N.E. | 61 | 42 | 419 | 6 | 6.9 | 10.0 |
| 30. | Chigoziem Okonkwo, Ten. | 77 | 54 | 528 | 1 | 6.9 | 9.8 |
| 31. | Cade Otton, T.B. | 67 | 47 | 455 | 4 | 6.8 | 9.7 |
| 32. | Evan Engram, Jac. | 143 | 114 | 963 | 4 | 6.7 | 8.5 |
| 33. | Pat Freiermuth, Pitt. | 47 | 32 | 308 | 2 | 6.6 | 9.6 |
| 34. | Logan Thomas, Was. | 78 | 55 | 496 | 4 | 6.4 | 9.0 |
| 35. | Juwan Johnson, N.O. | 59 | 37 | 368 | 4 | 6.2 | 10.0 |
| 36. | Gerald Everett, LAC | 70 | 51 | 411 | 3 | 5.9 | 8.1 |
| 37. | Mike Gesicki, N.E. | 45 | 29 | 244 | 2 | 5.4 | 8.4 |
| 38. | Zach Ertz, Ari. | 43 | 27 | 187 | 1 | 4.3 | 6.9 |
—Ian Allan