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George Kittle: 49ers Offense "Needs to Play at a Really High Level"

A scenario exists in which the 49ers bounce back and go to the Super Bowl next season, but such a scenario almost certainly would depend on the offense playing at an extremely high level.
Grant Cohn|
Jun 10, 2025; Santa Clara, CA, USA; San Francisco 49ers tight end George Kittle (85) works out with his teammates during an OTA at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: D. Ross Cameron-Imagn Images
Jun 10, 2025; Santa Clara, CA, USA; San Francisco 49ers tight end George Kittle (85) works out with his teammates during an OTA at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: D. Ross Cameron-Imagn Images | D. Ross Cameron-Imagn Images

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San Francisco 49ers

A scenario exists in which the 49ers bounce back and go to the Super Bowl next season, but such a scenario almost certainly would depend on the offense playing at an extremely high level.

The defense could have six new starters, and most of them will be rookies, so they don't have high expectations, at least not at first. No one would blame the defense if it went through growing pains as long as it slowly improved.

Not the case for the offense. It's an older group that has played together for quite some time. Recently, tight end George Kittle was interviewed on CBS Sports HQ and discussed the goal for the offense this year.

“I think what our goal is—is our offense needs to play at a really high level,” Kittle said. “We brought back basically everybody, which is pretty fun. And when you have Christian McCaffrey, Brock Purdy, Trent Williams, it makes me pretty excited to play football; I will say that. You can throw me in there, too, with Kyle Juszczyk. We’re decent as well.”

Kittle is absolutely correct, and most of the players he mentioned are difference-makers. But it's interesting that he didn't mention any wide receivers -- not Brandon Aiyuk, Jauan Jennings or Ricky Pearsall. Two of those players need to perform at a high level this year for the 49ers offense to truly scare even the best defenses.

Last season, the 49ers struggled to score in the red zone without Christian McCaffrey playing at his best -- he finished the season with zero touchdowns in four games. They need him in particular to play much better. Everything starts with McCaffrey.

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Grant Cohn
GRANT COHN

Grant Cohn has covered the San Francisco 49ers daily since 2011. He spent the first nine years of his career with the Santa Rosa Press Democrat where he wrote the Inside the 49ers blog and covered famous coaches and athletes such as Jim Harbaugh, Colin Kaepernick and Patrick Willis. In 2012, Inside the 49ers won Sports Blog of the Year from the Peninsula Press Club. In 2020, Cohn joined FanNation and began writing All49ers. In addition, he created a YouTube channel which has become the go-to place on YouTube to consume 49ers content. Cohn's channel typically generates roughly 3.5 million viewers per month, while the 49ers' official YouTube channel generates roughly 1.5 million viewers per month. Cohn live streams almost every day and posts videos hourly during the football season. Cohn is committed to asking the questions that 49ers fans want answered, and providing the most honest and interactive coverage in the country. His loyalty is to the reader and the viewer, not the team or any player or coach. Cohn is a new-age multimedia journalist with an old-school mentality, because his father is Lowell Cohn, the legendary sports columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1979 to 1993. The two have a live podcast every Tuesday. Grant Cohn grew up in Oakland and studied English Literature at UCLA from 2006 to 2010. He currently lives in Oakland with his wife.

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