No, do not close this page, this is not a copied post. San Francisco 49ers tight end George Kittle made Pro Football Focus’ Team of the Week for Week 14. I know, this might seem like something we just rehashed since he’s been doing this about every other week, but this week is different because he brought an offensive lineman with him. No, not Mike McGlinchey, he brought Joe Staley this time.
Along with catching passes, Staley once again showed why he’s protecting Nick Mullens’s blindside, allowing one hit. He kept Mullens out of trouble and also caught his third career pass. Here’s what PFF said about Staley making their Team of the Week:
The 49ers dropped back to pass 41 times in Sunday’s win over the Denver Broncos, and from those 41 pass-blocking snaps, Staley allowed just one quarterback hit. That makes it the ninth game this season where Staley has allowed two or fewer total pressures. He also had a reception, coming off a batted pass, that he was pretty excited about, but that didn’t factor into his spot on the Team of the Week.
Then there’s the man of the week, George Kittle. In case you didn’t hear, he powered up and crushed all beneath him with enormous force — 210 receiving yards, two records broken, and one record he came within five yards of. So here’s what PFF had to say about Kittle this week:
Kittle is a monster in the open field, and he made the Broncos pay with his ability to find big plays after the catch in their win over the Broncos. He hauled in seven receptions for 210 yards, averaging 7.78 yards per route run, with all of those yards coming in a huge first half.
The 49ers will need to work on finding Staley’s replacement as he has a couple more years left at best, but they have found an elite tight end in Kittle. If they can get the wide receivers figured out (which they have made great progress with, if Dante Pettis is any indication) Kittle can be schemed open on the regular.
What the hell were 31 other teams thinking to let Kittle slip that far in the 2017 draft?