- 3 months ago
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00:00I don't like it, and this is more fantasy footballification of America.
00:06I don't like it when people have a hard time with where George Kittle sits all time.
00:13Like, this is hands down a top ten all-time tight end, in my opinion.
00:21I don't even know how someone would debate otherwise if you're watching the entire football field.
00:26And he's 32, so that's quote-unquote getting up there, I guess.
00:32How old's Kelsey? How old's Kelsey right now? What's he at?
00:36Oh, he's like 36 or something.
00:37Yep. I mean, we'll see if Kittle is blessed with health the rest of the year,
00:42and next year and beyond and whatnot, but if he is,
00:45I think his numbers are going to get to a very easy spot
00:48where people do not have such a hard time with this, but it's been offensive at times.
00:53Every time I talk about George Kittle and where he sits in the whole league,
00:59people start firing back with Travis Kelsey and Travis Kelsey and Travis Kelce.
01:06By the way, Kelsey 37 in two weeks.
01:08Yeah, like five years older, but I get it.
01:11Travis is, if I'm just spotlighting the one stat that we all see,
01:17Travis is right there with everybody all the time, and maybe he's the best.
01:22Oh, he's not, but he's up there.
01:24No, but he's up there.
01:24Like, he is among the best receiving tight ends of all time, for sure,
01:30but that's one thing that they do, and George does that very, very well also,
01:35but there's a bunch of other stuff, and if you wanted to dive into the metrics
01:39through the last decade or so, George Kittle's career,
01:43if you wanted to dive into the metrics of the run game with him and without him,
01:46you'll be blown away.
01:48You'll be blown away at his effect.
01:50No doubt, no doubt, and it's beyond that, and I'll just do the surface numbers,
01:54and we'll start with total receptions as a tight end.
01:57He's ninth all time, and he is five away from Jeremy Shockey.
02:03He will pass Jeremy Shockey, hopefully on Sunday night.
02:05I'm going to be starting you, George.
02:07I'm going to need six now, and so he will be eighth all time among Pro Bowls.
02:12Pro Bowls, among people who have more catches than him, there are only five who have more Pro Bowls
02:20and more catches, and then the other number that really strikes, and this is going to be the one
02:24that plays to the numbers in terms of yards per game, he's number two.
02:32Number two.
02:33Number two.
02:34Behind Travis Kelsey, and he's only four yards a game behind Travis Kelsey,
02:37and that's yards per game, so none of that has to do with how good of a blocker he is,
02:42and I could look at a lot of these other guys who were good blockers,
02:45and I do think that Shannon Sharp is a guy that we forget about what a force he was at 6'5", 240,
02:51or whatever he was, and Antonio Gates wasn't asked to block a lot.
02:56Lo Neal, I'm sure, could speak to how good he was with the Chargers,
03:00but there are other two-way threats who are also, by the way, Hall of Famers,
03:05so George Kittle's going to the Hall, and this is not even to add in what I said on our show thread,
03:10the extra sprinkle of what it means to have him on your team.
03:15Just the emotions, the intangibles, the leadership, the hair flaps, all those things.
03:22Like, Antonio Gates was never the emotional leader of the Chargers.
03:26You covered those teams, and Travis Kelsey is kind of that guy, but Kermit is the dude.
03:33Gronk was absolutely that guy for the Patriots, but they also had Tom Brady,
03:38and Kittle's got McCaffrey and Shanahan, whatever, all these other things,
03:42but it's the other parts of who George Kittle is that puts him, to me, in a higher level.
03:47That is so, so, so, so well said.
03:51And that's why I said on the crossover, I wish there was a way to measure the unmeasurable.
03:55Right.
03:56Because, like, not only has George Kittle become such an unbelievable leader for the 49ers
04:02and a great locker room presence, I think I'd argue that if you made all of these great tight ends a team,
04:09wouldn't George be the leader?
04:11He started tight end you.
04:14A good point.
04:15Would George be the head coach of all of these tight ends that we're talking about?
04:19I've never heard Jason Witten talk.
04:21I don't even know if he has the power of speech.
04:24Antonio Gates.
04:25Didn't he do TV for a little bit?
04:26I thought he did a couple of years of TV.
04:28Would you?
04:28I thought so.
04:30I'd have to Google it, bud.
04:31Maybe.
04:31Yeah.
04:32Gonzalez, obviously.
04:33Greg Olson, yeah.
04:34Yeah.
04:34These guys are doing well now.
04:36And Shannon Sharp, hell, he's become huge in the media.
04:39Yep.
04:39Although, but anyway, there's stuff going on there.
04:43So I'm not saying he's the only personality, but he's the one that has, I think, spun in some ways this idea of making the tight end a lot cooler than it used to be.
04:57Even back in the days of Tony Gonzalez and Antonio Gates, it wasn't as cool as it is now.
05:04And you didn't see nearly as many.
05:06Now I feel like every team has that 6'7 dude.
05:09He's 6'7, he's just shy of offensive lineman weight, but he can run.
05:15Run like crazy and hit people and probably has half a cup of crazy in terms of a personality.
05:22Like, that's the way a lot of tight ends are now.
05:25And I think George has a huge footprint on all of that across the league.
05:31Yeah.
05:31And you look at, you know, the kind of tight end that he is, and that really becomes the prototype now, especially in modern football where you have to run the football and teams don't go without a tight end.
05:43And usually very much, like, you might go 11 personnel, one running back, one tight end, and you've got to have that one tight end as if possible.
05:50You know, I'm going to stay in and block on a pass play.
05:52I might stay in and block on a run play.
05:55I might go out and be ineligible.
05:57And so I think that George Kittle's become the prototype for what the modern tight end should be.
06:01Let's go to the phones.
06:02888-957-9570.
06:05We really say all this to say, I have hope.
06:09I have hope that this is the thing that fixes the 49ers run game.
06:15It's not sexy.
06:17It's not what we all want to talk about.
06:20We want to talk about injuries and quarterback.
06:23That's what makes all of us go when we sit there with a remote and nachos.
06:28I get it.
06:29And here we are.
06:30We're in sports radio.
06:31That's a big part of this.
06:33But I think if y'all want the 49er offense to get better, you can take your Brock and Mac and Mac and Brock and just tuck it away for a week or two.
06:46Because there's going to be plenty of time for this to figure out.
06:49Brock will come back at some point.
06:51Will he look good?
06:52Is Mac going to keep winning?
06:53We'll figure all this out.
06:55But everybody, if we could just tuck that and put it down in that closet downstairs that has all the stupid stuff in it that you only use once a year, maybe next to the Christmas wrapping paper.
07:07We just put that over there for a second.
07:09If you want the Niner offense to perform better, run the ball.
07:17For God's sakes, did you see what the Bengals did last night?
07:22They've been in total laughing stock this year.
07:25Why all of a sudden could Joe Flacco just Jamar, T, T, Jamar, beepity boppity, 33 points.
07:35Because they ran the ball.
07:36Yep.
07:37They ran the ball.
07:38Lucas is over here with Chase Brown as his first round draft pick.
07:41Yeah.
07:41And he's thinking, hey, Chase Brown had 100 yards on the ground.
07:48That was amazing.
07:49That's what we wanted all year.
07:51And that's what happens.
07:53Everybody's going to be open for Brock and Mac if they can just average four or five yards a carry for a game.
08:01Wait till you see it.
08:02Yeah.
08:02And my hope is that George is the thing that finally unlocks this damn door.
08:08Yeah, he might be.
08:10And I haven't done the full dive on rushing yards with versus rushing yards without.
08:15But just glancing at his record and their record because George Kittle's been here exactly as long as Kyle Shanahan.
08:22Wow.
08:23His rookie year was Shanahan's first year.
08:25And with George Kittle, 64 and 50.
08:29Without George Kittle, 10 and 14.
08:31Now, a little bit of that is nuanced because there's been a couple of week 18 games where, you know, you didn't play George and you were going to the playoffs and you laid down.
08:39And I get that.
08:40But just over a large sample of both of their first year to right now, when George plays, you're 14 above.
08:49When he doesn't play, you're four below.
08:50Yeah, and that number's gotten better this year because he's been out and they've actually won more games than they've lost without him.
08:58Right.
08:58They're three and two without him.
08:59Yeah.
08:59Essentially.
09:00That number, you know, got just at least a tick better just this year.
09:04All right.
09:04Let's go to Trevor in Rohnert Park.
09:06Hi, Trevor.
09:06Thanks for the call.
09:07What's up?
09:09Hey, what's up, guys?
09:10I know it's been a little bit since I called.
09:11I just wanted to key in on this because I am super excited to see Kittle come back.
09:16I do think that he is going to make a difference in the run game a little bit.
09:22But instead of thinking about injuries, I think thinking about how this team is doing and how they're going to look in week 10, 11, 12, when they're fully healthy is a bit exciting.
09:33The only thing that I'm feeling right now is that putting Kittle on that offensive line is like putting a Band-Aid on a gunshot wound when you're looking at the offensive line the way they act right now and the way they're playing.
09:45So I'm still concerned about the offensive line either way.
09:48I do think it's going to help.
09:50I think McCaffrey is going to have a better run game, game to game now because of it.
09:55But I do think that offensive line, and I know I've been preaching that forever when I call in here, but, I mean, it's just never addressed.
10:02And that's still a cause for concern for me.
10:05But I do think Kittle is definitely going to cause Atlanta to watch him a little closer.
10:11He's going to help block.
10:13And when he's not blocking, he's going to be a good receiver.
10:15So, I mean, yes, it's a massive upgrade to have him back and super excited to watch him come back and help.
10:20But I think the key to look at is how that offensive line responds going forward.
10:26And then also, you know, we're going to start getting these players healthy as we get on throughout the year.
10:31Hopefully, and then we'll have some wide receivers.
10:34We will have Brandon Ayuk back, hopefully, better than he was when he left when he got hurt, too, because that last year he wasn't good.
10:42But Kittle is definitely a top five, six tight end in my mind, too.
10:45Remember last year, he was asked to block, like, all the time.
10:48He did not get a lot of receiving yards last year.
10:52And that's what's going to happen, I think, for the next three or four games until we get healthy with the wide receiver core again and we're going to run the ball a lot.
11:03And so, yeah, I mean, you're going to see those numbers, those numbers you talk about that don't pop out on the stat sheet about the blocking and the impact that he has with that.
11:15That's going to show you're going to see a lot of that in the next two or three games.
11:18Excited to see him come back.
11:20I think he's going to make a huge impact.
11:21I'd like to see the offensive line get upgraded a little bit, too.
11:24Wow, I hear you, Trevor.
11:26Thanks.
11:26Yeah, thanks, Trevor.
11:26And that's a totally fair point.
11:28I will just say this, though.
11:30I do think that offensive line, the group that's there, that is a chain link fence.
11:39And so when you say, like, George will come back and he'll do his thing, but the rest of the offensive line has been underperforming,
11:47I absolutely think that this is a sum of all parts kind of a conversation.
11:54George Kittle being there will completely, quote unquote, raise the play of the others.
12:01At least this is my hope.
12:03And I don't mean that in some sort of inspirational way.
12:05I mean that in terms of the point of attack.
12:09Like, when you have another really important piece to the run game there, it's going to make it look like the whole group individually is performing better
12:19because actually they'll perform well as a group and you have a point of attack that you can focus on as far as where you're running the ball.
12:27You know what I would love to know, and you're the guy to ask, like, I know this is such an incredibly small sample.
12:34How many drives did George play this year in Seattle?
12:39How many drives?
12:40I'm glad you asked me that because I just was looking at the notes and the opening drive, he scored the touchdown.
12:46He got the touchdown.
12:47Drive number one.
12:48The second drive, they go three and out.
12:50Drive three, it is CMC for six, CMC for nine, and then he runs that route, he gets hurt.
12:58And he gets hurt.
12:58Okay.
12:59So drive three.
12:59And on that play, it was first and ten.
13:02They got, he got sacked.
13:03I think it was Purdy at the time.
13:05They lost 12 yards and Kittle hobbled off and we haven't seen him since.
13:08Do you have the play-by-play to where we could?
13:11And I get it, it's three drives, so I'm not trying to make some massive point here.
13:15But how many yards per carry were the Niners averaging when he left?
13:22You just mentioned two carries for 15 yards on that third drive.
13:26Right.
13:26So there's that.
13:27I'll exclude the Purdy scramble for nine and the other Purdy scramble for three.
13:33Okay.
13:33Because those aren't really running plays.
13:35Although, like when we talk about their season numbers, those quarterback scrambles are a part of it.
13:40But anyway, go ahead.
13:40It is, and opening drive, they went five carries for seven yards, and then they had two for 15.
13:47So that would be seven carries for 22, which is a little bit more than three.
13:52But on that third drive, it was McCaffrey for six, and it was McCaffrey for nine.
13:58Kittle was on the field for both.
13:59Yeah.
13:59And I'm not saying they were humming.
14:01They started their own 14, but Kittle gets hurt, and then they run a draw for six,
14:06then McCaffrey goes for nine, then they punt.
14:08And that's the way that went.
14:09And then from then on, it was, where's Tongis?
14:12Yeah.
14:13Where's Tongis at?
14:14Well, it turns out he was Johnny on the spot that game in the end.
14:17But yeah, so it's too small of a sample.
14:20But what I do remember, so there was a three and out in there.
14:23There was a drive that seemingly was going well when he left.
14:26And then there was the opening drive where the Niners looked great.
14:2995 yards, Mark.
14:3095-yard drive.
14:31George actually had four catches in the game.
14:34I don't remember how many he had on that drive, but I know it ended with him scoring the touchdown.
14:39So, I don't think that this is a crazy thought that the offense will totally change with George Kittle there.
14:49Now, we've never seen Mac Jones play with George Kittle.
14:53Super interested to see that.
14:55Don't know what kind of rapport they've been able to build just in practice this week.
15:00But I hope they fast-track that.
15:03And obviously, what Trevor says is also correct.
15:07Like George, especially in this particular case, he might ask to be a little bit more run-game focused to start this one off than pass game.
15:16We'll see.
15:16I don't know how they're going to deploy him.
15:19I just know this.
15:20We've had two offensive linemen on 95-7 the game this week that pointed to this as the thing.
15:27First of all, on our show, John Feliciano with regard to the run game and George Kittle.
15:33I feel like the bigger problems are on the outside.
15:36Kittle, we desperately need Kittle back.
15:39Gone are the days of Chris Conley.
15:41I mean, Juwan is still there, but he's not playing like he's capable.
15:46I'm guessing it's because of the broken ribs.
15:48B.A. is a great blocker.
15:50Debo is a great blocker.
15:51I think we're missing that right now.
15:53Okay, so now he goes beyond Kittle, Jennings not up to snuff, and Debo is gone, but he pointed to George Kittle, and then so did Brian Baldinger on the morning roast.
16:04I'd say the blocking, because they run two main plays where George is at a focal.
16:09They run an outside zone where they pull a tight end across, and they double the outside edge player with two tight ends, and then they work up to the second level.
16:18And then at high formation with Juicet fullback, they'll run just, you know, basic fullback lead, and George has to block, you know, the outside defensive end or outside linebacker.
16:27And there's really nobody at the point of attack better than George.
16:30So I'd say he's more important right now, because Tongas has been okay in the passing game.
16:34He's not going to give you the yards after catch that George will give you, but he's been okay.
16:38But I think at the point of attack, they miss George right now in the run game.
16:41Okay, and the question on that particular one was, do they miss him more in the run game or the pass game?
16:45And I love the breakdown, because the outside zone is what we all see, whether it's a stretch and McCaffrey goes wide.
16:52And, yeah, you've got Kittle out there either taking on the defensive end first and then getting to the second level,
16:57or it's, you know, the toss play we saw last week, or like he's talking about, where it's two running backs,
17:03and it's going to be kind of straight power where you've got Juszczyk leading the way for McCaffrey.
17:08And then Kittle is, again, on the outside, and hopefully Trent is taking care of his business,
17:13and then George can get to the linebacker, and that's where you get explosive plays.
17:18And we haven't had that, because none of the blockers, linemen, Juszczyk, tight ends, wide receivers,
17:24none of them have been able to get to the second level, to the linebackers, to the safeties,
17:28and create that secondary hole where McCaffrey can get up to full speed,
17:32and then, you know, maybe make somebody miss and do what we've seen from a lot of teams,
17:37including last night, where it was big plays ahoy in that thing.
17:40Man, last night's game was fun.
17:41That game was fun.
17:42Someone pointed out that's three Thursday nights in a row where there was a quote-unquote major outright upset.
17:50Yeah.
17:50Starting with the 49er-RAM game.
17:52Right, divisional games, I believe, all three.
17:53Divisional games, Philadelphia losing to New York last Thursday, and then last night,
17:57suddenly the Bengals looked passable and got themselves to three and four.
18:03And by the way, that's another brick on the wall of Trey Hendrickson.
18:06Yeah.
18:07Ain't going anywhere.
18:07I thought that on the way in today.
18:09Yeah, when they won that game, it's like Joe Flacco's there.
18:12They just beat the Steelers.
18:14It's the only team ahead of them in the division.
18:16The Bengals are not going to do that to the rest of the guys in that locker room.
18:20They're like, no, we think we can win this thing.
18:22Right.
18:23And if you're Jamar Chase and T. Higgins, and you're in the locker room after that game,
18:27you're thinking, yeah, that was fun.
18:30I was open, and the guy with the ball threw it, and I was able to catch it.
18:34And no disrespect to Jake Browning.
18:36He had a couple of nightmarish games.
18:38It's a rough night for him.
18:39It's rough.
18:40It's a rough night for him when somebody who literally just showed up less than seven days ago
18:45can walk in and conduct an offense that way and win a football game on primetime.
18:51That's a rough night for him.
18:52Joe Flacco is a special, special quarterback.
18:55And I tweeted this out.
18:57As far as journeyman winners, he is one of seven quarterbacks all time to start a game
19:04and win a game for six teams or more.
19:08He's one of only seven guys who've ever done that.
19:11Okay.
19:11One of seven players to start and win.
19:14Start and win.
19:14For at least six teams.
19:16Correct.
19:17Oh, God.
19:18And I'll give you the names because, I mean, we'd be here all night with the nuance of this,
19:22but Vinny Testaverde is one.
19:25Oh, I wouldn't have guessed that.
19:26I mean.
19:26Played for six teams?
19:28At least.
19:28I mean, he was a Jets.
19:29Yeah, Jets.
19:30He was a Bucs for sure.
19:33And.
19:34He was a Browns?
19:36Wasn't everyone a Browns?
19:38Yeah, that's a good point.
19:39Yeah.
19:39And I thought that he, was he a Ravens?
19:41I'll pull up his stats.
19:43Yeah, I think he was.
19:43I think he was a Ravens.
19:45Yeah.
19:45Yeah.
19:46But Vinny Testaverde is.
19:47Any other actives?
19:49Jets, Tampa, Cleveland, Baltimore, Dallas, and Carolina.
19:52God, I would not have remembered any of that.
19:54His Dallas tenure.
19:55Carolina.
19:56Yeah.
19:56I definitely do not remember that.
19:57You've got Chris Chandler.
19:59Okay.
20:01Earl Morrill.
20:02I mentioned this during the break.
20:03I mean.
20:03Okay, that's going way back.
20:04Gus Farratt.
20:06Case Keenum.
20:07That's a good one.
20:09Josh McCown.
20:10And the all-time leader in starts and wins with different teams is?
20:17Fitzmagic.
20:18Oh, yeah.
20:19Ryan Fitzpatrick.
20:19Seven teams.
20:20Wow.
20:22Wow.
20:22Yeah, I would have gotten none of those.
20:25Exactly.
20:26None of them.
20:26And I did a little bit of a dive post-game because I was thinking about Flacco and like,
20:30not is he a Hall of Famer or is he not?
20:32I mean, he might be with that Super Bowl win.
20:35Maybe.
20:35The dude, you can't kill him.
20:37He just keeps on doing it.
20:39Dude, that was crazy when those two dudes took their helmets off.
20:41And I'm like, they both have completely gray beards.
20:45And they're playing football against each other.
20:47And the final score was 31 to 30.
20:49Or 33 to 31.
20:50Fitzmagic, by the way, started for two other franchises but didn't win for them.
20:54Oh, God.
20:55So eight.
20:56Nine.
20:56Nine.
20:57He was seven for nine.
20:58He didn't win with St. Louis and he didn't win with Washington.
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