It is no secret that San Francisco 49ers star tight end George Kittle is the biggest fan of tight ends on the planet. He, along with Travis Kelce and Greg Olsen, started Tight End University, which is a camp directed at developing tight ends. During this year's event in Nashville, Kittle spoke to the media. One of the topics stayed on course with a conversation about the position's significance.
“If you look at the past 10 Super Bowl winners, every team has either a Gronk, a Kelce, Dallas Goedert, you have an elite tight end that makes plays for you the entire season,” Kittle said during NFL Live.
He isn't wrong. Outside of a few teams, every recent winner has had a tight end of value. The league is adapting after seeing Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski make plays for the New England Patriots all those years, and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Kansas City Chiefs formed an almost identical tandem with Patrick Mahomes and Kelce. Those two teams seriously benefited from having Kelce and Gronk catch touchdowns in the playoffs and help lead the teams to multiple Super Bowl wins. Olsen was huge for Cam Newton and their run to the Super Bowl in 2015, despite losing. Last season, Dallas Goedert was a massive weapon for Jalen Hurts.
Article Continues BelowEven though Kittle doesn't have a Super Bowl himself with the 49ers, he has been to two of them and lost both by small margins to the Chiefs.
The new era of tight ends is upon us. Brock Bowers is turning into a superstar with the Las Vegas Raiders. The Indianapolis Colts drafted Tyler Warren out of Penn State, and the Chicago Bears took Colston Loveland out of Michigan as the new wave of TEs. Sam LaPorta, Jake Ferguson, Kyle Pitts, and TJ Hockenson are capable of being massive contributors to a Super Bowl-winning team.