Quarterback Brock Purdy and the San Francisco 49ers are currently in the midst of a highly important offseason as for the future direction of their franchise following their curhsing loss in Super Bowl 58 vs the Kansas City Chiefs in Las Vegas. Although Purdy quelled most doubts about his ability to lead his team on a deep playoff run, doing so for the second straight season, the 49ers ultimately were unable to break through, falling to 0-3 in their last three forays into the big game.
One player who was strangely missing in action during the Super Bowl and at times appeared more interested in going viral on the NFL's “mic'd up” segment than chasing loose fumbles that were on the ground nearby him was star tight end George Kittle, who saw a slight dip in production during the 2023 season but is still among the game's elites.
Recently, Kittle broke down his mentality as the 49ers' array of pass catching options continues to expand.
“If you watch every game this entire year, like, there's games where I had 15 targets and there's games I had one target. And it's just like, that's just kind of the way our offense goes, and while I would fully love five to eight targets a game, there's just games it's not going to happen, so I just try to contribute in other ways like I have my entire career,” said Kittle, via the Dan Patrick Show on YouTube. “So yes, there are times when you're sitting there like, alright, come on now, it's time. Throw me the ball a little bit. But I think overall, we won a lot of games the way that our offense is going and so I'm not going to complain too much.”
Can the 49ers bounce back?
The 49ers have been knocking on the door of NFL immortality for several years now but so far have been unable to break through in the modern era. Of course, it was four years ago during the 2019-20 season where the 49ers once again played a close Super Bowl vs the Chiefs but ultimately blew a ten-point fourth quarter lead and lost that game.
As previously mentioned, Kittle is just one of a slew of offensive weapons that Brock Purdy has at his disposal, including the best running back in the NFL in Christian McCaffrey, one of the league's premier Swiss army knives in Deebo Samuel, and star wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk, who is currently holding out of OTA's and hoping for a new contract.
On paper, the 49ers certainly figure to have all of the necessary pieces on both offense and defense to finally break through and win the Lombardi Trophy. However, it's worth considering that the NFC does figure to get at least marginally more competitive this year, as the Detroit Lions figure to be back and better and the Philadelphia Eagles appear to be in store for a bounce back season following the dud that was their 2023 campaign.
In any case, the 49ers' season gets underway in September.
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