George Kittle isn't looking past today. He's heard the offseason chatter. The San Francisco 49ers own a very talented roster, one good enough to win a Super Bowl. But the 49ers' star tight end is focused on training camp and making sure he's the best he can be in the here and now.
"You're like 201 days away, but no one's counting," Kittle told a reporter on Wednesday when asked if the team is thinking about the Super Bowl.
General manager John Lynch insists the 49ers have budgeted for the future. Still, looming contracts for pass rusher Nick Bosa and wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk have created some salary-cap uncertainty.
"We believe we've budgeted for a lot of things, and we always want to stay aggressive," Lynch said this week. "We want to push the limits, and we have ownership that allows us that opportunity to do it. At some point, there are some realities that have to happen, and we're no different."
With financial challenges on the horizon, many feel the 49ers need to take advantage of this window. The team owns a win-now roster and isn't overspending at quarterback yet. Things can change quickly in the NFL.
"I think that's something that our team is very aware of," Kittle shared. "We have a lot of highly-paid players on this team who have earned that money, and you can only pay so many guys. And we know that some of those guys are at the end of their contracts, the end of the guarantees, and that's when things start to move.
"So yes, we're very aware of that. I don't think it's something that, hey, we have a team meeting, or like, 'Hey, this is it.' But our vet guys, we understand that. It's something we kind of talked about in OTAs. It'll be mentioned throughout training camp. We're aware of that.
"We know that we have a fantastic team. We need to win games. It's on us. It's on our amazing coaching staff. It's on our amazing players. We have to go out there and win."
Kittle understands the NFL is a business. He is among the players the 49ers have invested significant money to keep.
"We have a fantastic football team," Kittle added. "We have a great core of guys at really important positions. We understand that the window, whatever that is, could be closing. We're going to try our best just to keep that window open as long as we possibly can, but we're going to try to sneak out some wins while that window is still open, according to everybody else."
Lynch added, "Everybody plays under the same system, so that's our challenge. [In] 2024, there will be some challenges, but we've prepared for a lot of that and are confident we can make it work and still keep our team very competitive."