George Kittle might not have been a 49er if it wasn’t for the team’s extensive study of quarterback CJ Beathard.
Kittle and Beathard were teammates at the University of Iowa, and 49ers general manager John Lynch told reporters at the NFL combine Thursday that they noticed the tight end while breaking down the quarterback’s tape.
“I would say, he and we were probably the benefactor from us putting a lot of time in on C.J. Beathard early and then finding out who’s this number 46?” Lynch said. “They don’t throw it much, but this guy can run and he can block and football is really important to him. He’s got some funky movements to him that maybe at first you don’t see a crazy athlete, but the more you watch him, he’s always pulling away from people. And there’s a toughness to his play. There’s a will that speaks through the film.”
Just looking at Kittle’s production in four years of college football would’ve made him easy to gloss over. Most tight ends who post 48 receptions for 737 yards and 10 touchdowns in four years of college aren’t going to get a very thorough assessment from NFL teams.
Kittle didn’t blow up at the combine either. His athleticism still stood out enough on tape that the 49ers selected him in the fifth round of the 2017 draft. They took Beathard two rounds earlier.
San Francisco was quickly rewarded for their diligence to find Kittle on Beathard’s tape. He had a good rookie year with 43 catches for 515 yards and two touchdowns. Then he backed it up with a one of the best seasons in NFL history by a tight end. He led the 49ers with a franchise-record 88 catches. He also led the team in receiving yards 1,377 – an NFL record for tight ends., and hauled in five touchdowns.
It was a Herculean jump.
“Probably had a better offseason than any rookie I’ve ever seen,” Lynch said. “He came back, and you could tell, there’s certain players you can tell when they come back from what we call those 30 days away, not 30 days off. George is an example that Kyle will use and we will always use, the jump he made from year one to year two because of the work he put in. Obviously, there’s a lot of talent, but the work showed this year. He had one of the great seasons a tight end has ever had.”
Kittle himself is a great example of the benefit of hard work, but the story behind his selection offers a similar lesson.
San Francisco’s track record in drafts has been up and down through two years, but Kittle was an undeniable home run pick. It looks like an accident on the surface. In reality, the pick was the product of careful scrutinization of a prospect’s tape, and a willingness to keep an open mind through the draft process.
That same thought process will be essential to the 49ers finding more diamonds in the rough and Days 2 and 3 of the draft.
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