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Will George Kittle Finish His Career with the 49ers?

He has two years and no guaranteed money left on his contract, just like McCaffrey before he signed his extension last week. The 49ers took care of CMC, but haven't yet taken care of Kittle, and they probably won't.
Grant Cohn|
Former Iowa Tight End George Kittle is in attendance during a second-round NCAA Tournament game between Iowa and West Virginia, Monday, March 25, 2024 at Carver Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City.
Former Iowa Tight End George Kittle is in attendance during a second-round NCAA Tournament game between Iowa and West Virginia, Monday, March 25, 2024 at Carver Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City. | Zach Boyden-Holmes/The Register / USA

The 49ers won't be able to keep their current core of players together much longer.

Next year, they'll have to make Brock Purdy one of the highest-paid players in the NFL, which means lots of other highly-priced 49ers will have to go. And Christian McCaffrey will not be one of the players on the way out considering he just signed a contract extension through 2027. The 49ers view him as essential to their present and future.

Which brings us to George Kittle. He has two years and no guaranteed money left on his contract, just like McCaffrey before he signed his extension last week. The 49ers took care of CMC, but haven't yet taken care of Kittle, and they probably won't.

Why?

Because Kittle gets injured. He doesn't miss many games, but he often has to play through an injury which required surgery in the offseason. Just last year he suffered a core-muscle injury which affected him all season, especially in the Super Bowl when he caught just two passes. Now he's rehabbing from core-muscle surgery.

It seems likely the 49ers will keep Kittle for two more seasons and then let his contract expire in 2026. Then Kittle can retire from football and join the WWE, or he can sign one last contract with another NFL team.

I'm guessing Kittle will sign a deal with another team. He probably feels he has more to give on the football field and that the 49ers haven't allowed him to have the impact as a receiver that he could have on another team.

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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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