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Will the 49ers Trade George Kittle this Offseason?

The 49ers clearly love Kittle, but they might not want to give another lucractive extension to an older player.
Grant Cohn|
Dec 30, 2024; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers tight end George Kittle (85) during the game against the Detroit Lions at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Sergio Estrada-Imagn Images
Dec 30, 2024; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers tight end George Kittle (85) during the game against the Detroit Lions at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Sergio Estrada-Imagn Images | Sergio Estrada-Imagn Images

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San Francisco 49ers

The 49ers want to spend less money this offseason.

They recently traded Deebo Samuel to the Washington Commanders to avoid paying him a $15.4 million option bonus on March 22. And they currently are shopping Brandon Aiyuk so they hopefully can avoid paying him a $22.885 million option bonus on April 1.

Which brings us to George Kittle. He's under contract, but he's entering the final season of his deal and he wants an extension. He said so at the end of the season. And he's coming off a phenomenal year, so he probably wants a long-term extension that makes him the highest-paid tight end in the NFL.

The 49ers clearly love Kittle, but they might not want to give another lucractive extension to an older player. They gave out two of those last year to Christian McCaffrey and Trent Willams and both missed lots of games.

So if the 49ers don't extend Kittle's contract, that means he might hold out of training camp just like Brandon Aiyuk held out last year and Nick Bosa held out the year before.

If Kittle holds out, the 49ers could do what they usually do when star players want extensions, which is to let them hold out for the entire training camp and preseason and then give them everything they want right before the regular season begins.

Or, the 49ers could be proactive and trade Kittle.

If they know he's not part of their long-term future, trade him now while his value as at its highest. They might be able to get a first-round pick for him.

Don't forget, the Chiefs traded Tyreek Hill a few years ago and then won back-to-back Super Bowls without him.

Sometimes it's better to trade a star a year too early rather than a year too late.

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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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