Sunday was National Tight Ends Day, a celebration which San Francisco 49ers tight end George Kittle helped cofound nearly a decade ago. Over the years, Kittle has seen both the role and reputation of the NFL tight end grow, and he couldn’t be happier.
“When I first got into the league, there were probably like five tight ends I could name realistically,” Kittle told Men’s Journal this week. “If you’re just a casual football fan, you’re not really gonna know every single tight end. Nowadays, I feel like there’s a really solid or an elite tight end on almost every team in the NFL. Most football fans could name almost every NFL starting tight end. I just think that’s really cool, and I just think the tight end position is just getting better and better. More guys are wanting to do it. Now you have kids who are growing up trying to play tight end. They have way more practice at it, and they’re just getting better early. And so I think the tight end position is just going to continue to get better and better. I think the recognition has been – it’s good for the boys. It’s really good for us.”
An eight-time Pro Bowler and perennial All-Pro, Kittle is off to a strong start to 2026. He has 34 receptions for 425 yards and five touchdowns in seven games as the 49ers are off to a 6-1 start.
Off the field, the 33-year-old former University of Iowa star is involved in Novartis’ “Relax, It’s a Blood Test” campaign, which includes a number of fellow tight ends preaching awareness and diligence for men and women when it comes to cancer screenings and prevention.
It’s a cause that has added meaning for Kittle.
“It became a personal thing for me because my grandpa had prostate cancer,” he told MJ. “He survived it, but it was actually right around the time he passed from old age that this Novartis thing came up. So then I started looking more into prostate cancer and it just kind of went hand in hand together.
“What I realized is there’s just not a lot of awareness for prostate cancer. Like, none of my friends know anything about it. None of the guys I hang out with, none of the guys I golf with know anything about it. One in eight men are going to get diagnosed with prostate cancer, which I think is terrible odds. As a guy, I would want to know that, and also know then that early detection can give you a really, really good chance of surviving it.
In terms of his own health, Kittle spent this past offseason doing something he never did before and hopes to never have to do again: rehabilitating from a serious injury.
After tearing his Achilles during San Francisco’s playoff win over the Philadelphia Eagles last January, Kittle’s entire training schedule was thrown for a loop. He’s managed the situation well though.
“This off-season, I didn’t really start moving until late May, early June,” Kittle said. “I was jogging lightly, I think that’s when I was on one of those anti-gravity treadmills. I wasn’t really able to do anything, so the preparation was totally different. I’m used to running a hundred to 125 routes a week in the offseason. This year I did zero. So, in terms of level of preparedness, it was definitely less. Luckily I’m going into year 10, so I know what to expect from an NFL season. So with all the practices and stuff, I feel like I’ve knocked the rust off and I feel like my old self again. But it was a very different offseason.
“At the same time though, there were positives I got from it. I didn’t wear myself down and run myself into the dirt too early. And I’m still feeling incredibly fresh seven weeks into the season and now going on a bye week. So I think there’s a plan for everything, and I think it’s going according to plan right now.”
The 49ers enter their bye week coming off a loss to the Atlanta Falcons, but they’re 6-1 overall and look like one of the top teams in the NFL. When we spoke with Kittle, San Francisco had not yet traded for Indianapolis Colts defensive tackle DeForest Buckner, but he was still excited for what the team might do ahead of the Nov. 10 trade deadline.
“I would say five years ago, I used to be so dialed into all of it,” Kittle said. “I was like, ‘Oh, this could be so cool.’ And then none of it happens. And then there was a year that we traded for Christian McCaffrey at that trade deadline. I don’t know if that was even a rumor. I know there were rumors of him getting shopped, but we weren’t even on the page. And so now I’d rather just be surprised.
“We don’t really talk about it. The best mindset you can have is like, ‘Hey, whoever’s in this building is who we’re going to do with.’ If they want to add someone, awesome. We’ll take all hands on deck, whoever they want to add. Sure. But whoever’s here, we’re going to work with them. We’re gonna do our best to just get it done. But I do love putting on the tinfoil hat and, like, conspiracy trading for it. Me and [fullback Kyle] Juszczyk will chirp at [general manager John] Lynch sometimes just for fun. So that’s always a good time.”
