The San Francisco 49ers’ George Kittle is the NFL’s gold-standard tight end. That’s the level the Green Bay Packers’ young star, Tucker Kraft, is trying to reach.
“I don’t want to be the next George Kittle,” Kraft said on Thursday as the Packers continued their prep for Sunday’s NFC showdown against the 49ers. “I want to be Tucker Kraft and, 15 years from now, I want someone else to be the next Tucker Kraft and forge their own story.”
Kittle is the NFL’s best tight end – and has been for quite a while. He blocks. He catches. He runs over defenders. He protects the passer.
There’s nothing he can’t do.
It’s that all-around dominance that Kraft is chasing. They are of similar size. They are of similar Midwest backgrounds, with Kittle growing up in Iowa and playing at Iowa and Kraft growing up in South Dakota and playing at South Dakota State.
In the NFL, they wound up playing in similar offensive schemes that require tight ends to be more than overgrown receivers.
Kittle as a fifth-round pick in 2017 thrived, earning first- or second-team All-Pro four times. Kraft, in his second season, is chasing that standard.
“As of right now in the NFL as far as do-it-all tight ends, George is the guy that we look to most in the offseason, especially with the way that our offenses are similar – that (Kyle) Shanahan tree,” Kraft said.
“We look at the way that he runs off the football in outside zone and we look at the things that come off that. One of my major goals beginning of this season was to be one of the best blocking tight ends in the NFL and how many things come off of being a good run-blocking tight end. George works the same way.”
Kraft and Kittle share an agent, Jack Bechta, so they’ve trained together in the offseason in Nashville, and Kraft’s been able to use Kittle as a resource to grow his game.
This year, Kraft was selected to attend Tight End University, which was created in 2021 by Kittle, Travis Kelce and Greg Olsen as a way for tight ends to bond, collaborate and grow their games.
Kittle’s presentation was of particular interest to Kraft.
“The part of the game that he tries to take on and shed light onto other guys is the run blocking and the pass pro rather than Gronk’s (Rob Gronkowski) talking about YAC, Trav’s (Kelce) talking about routes. George was talking about run blocking and pass pro.
“He’s a guy that I look up to, for sure.”
During the offseason, position coach John Dunn frequently cues up some Kittle film for Kraft and the other tight ends to study.
“He’s definitely a guy that we watch quite a bit,” Dunn said. “To be a really elite tight end, you’ve got to be great in all three areas. You’re talking about pass game, run game, protection’s involved in that. He’s a guy that I think does all three of those areas as good as anyone has done it. He’s certainly a guy that we watch, I show examples of, ‘Here’s how it’s done. Here’s how you do it.’”
This season, it’s all come together for Kraft. He’s such a well-rounded player that he rarely comes off the field, with 86.4 percent playing time.
In the run game, he’s a tremendous point-of-attack blocker. In the pass game, he statistically has surpassed Kittle as the best run-after-catch threat in the game; he is No. 1 by a wide margin with 9.5 yards after the catch per catch and is second with nine missed tackles, according to Pro Football Focus.
It's preposterous, of course, to compare Kraft to Kittle. Five years after his career is over, Kittle will be enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Kraft (including playoffs) will be playing in his 30th career game on Sunday.
But it is fair to say that Kraft is trending toward becoming a Kittle-style player.
“I certainly don’t want to compare and I definitely don’t want to predict, because I don’t want to put limits on anyone or compare to anyone, especially of his caliber,” Dunn said.
“But the one thing about Tuck is he works at it so hard that that’s his goal. The way he goes about his business and attacks it, that’s his mindset. ‘I’m going to be the best that there was.’ But I think that he has a high ceiling, and he’s working to reach that. Where does that fall compared to others, he can’t control (and) we can’t control. But he works his tail off to get to that.”
Kraft’s rise has been remarkable. As a rookie last year, it was fellow rookie Luke Musgrave who was the lead dog at the position. Only when Musgrave suffered a lacerated kidney against the Chargers in mid-November did Kraft become a primary cog in the offense.
Kraft played so well that he was the clear No. 1 tight end at the start of this season. Including last year’s playoffs, in which Kraft caught a touchdown pass in the loss at San Francisco, he had at least two receptions in 19 consecutive games. That streak was snapped last week at Chicago when the only pass thrown his way sailed over his head and was intercepted.
But, unlike some other tight ends in the NFL, zero catches didn’t mean zero impact.
“We talk about all the time that production, especially at the tight end position, is not always ball production,” Dunn said. “That’s what the stats say but that’s not really how we measure production at that position.”
As Kraft gets ready for his second crack at the 49ers, he likes his career trajectory.
“Yeah, of course,” he said. “And maybe it’s just an exposure thing. I think you turn on the film, it’s going to speak for itself. Maybe I’m already there. I’m never going to ever be in the ‘arrived’ category. That’s a façade. No one ever arrives. I’m going to keep showing up to work every day, pushing myself.
“But I think the jump I’ve made from my rookie year to this year has been very large.”
On Sunday, one of the greatest tight ends in NFL history will be on the field for the 49ers. Kittle figures to have a big role. So, too, will Kraft, the budding standout who has a chance to become, at least, one of the best tight ends in the game.
“That’s kind of the path I’m on right now,” Kraft said. “At one point, George was the ‘next somebody,’ too. Future Hall of Famer right there, no doubt about it. But they’ve got to come beat us at our place.”
