Many wondered what the point was in the San Francisco 49ers playing tight end George Kittle, who broke a bone in his foot eight weeks ago. The team has been eliminated from the playoffs, and Kittle even admitted this week that he isn't in the best of shape. Most of that is because of the limitations in place due to COVID-19 protocols.
While fans may have been fearful of the prospect of unnecessarily putting the All-Pro tight end in harm's way, they probably enjoyed seeing him out there doing George Kittle-type things again.
The 49ers beat the Arizona Cardinals 20-12, and Kittle finished with four catches for 92 yards.
"It was good," Kittle told reporters after the game. "I think I only had like 10 plays at the half, so I was able to kind of let it rip the second half. Like I said, it was fun to be out there. Definitely still a little bit out of shape, but I think we had a good rotation, and when I was in there, I know the tight ends played at a high level. I think we handled ourselves very well out there."
Shanahan was excited to have Kittle back in the lineup, adding another receiving threat to the offense and another strong run-blocker.
"Everyone sees on the field what he means to us and how good of a player he is in the run game and the pass game," Shanahan said. "Just having Kittle at practice is different. We have guys like that, that affect our team that way. When Deebo (Samuel)'s out there, our team's very similar. It's different. ... Kittle, we knew just getting him a part of us, dressing him out today would be able to help a ton. But just what he was able to statistically in the pass game and always in the run game, I can't say enough about George. "
The 49ers have struggled to run the football this season. That wasn't the case on Saturday. San Francisco had 227 total rushing yards against the playoff-hopeful Cardinals. Running back Jeff Wilson Jr. had a career-high 183 of those yards.
"That's our standard," Kittle said. "That's what we want to run the ball like very single week, and I know that it's been frustrating for guys, for our team, that we haven't been running the ball well. ... When you run the ball like that, it's really fun. Guys are making plays. Guys are hitting. We're physical. I think we ran Power like five, six times in the last two drives, which is one of my favorite running plays."
And as for the Cardinals' playoff hopes, Kittle explained why he relished a bit in making things more difficult for the division rival.
"I will say this," Kittle added. "I did grow up a Bears fan, and the fact that we helped the Bears a little bit just makes me a little happier. Da Bears."
Kirk Larrabee contributed to this article.
