George Kittle Explains What Jordan Mason Adds to the 49ers Offense

Of all the players on the 49ers, no one explains the game better than George Kittle.

Sep 9, 2024; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy (13) hands off to running back Jordan Mason (right) during the second quarter at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images / Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images

SANTA CLARA -- Of all the players on the 49ers, no one explains the game better than George Kittle.

So after Jordan Mason's incredible performance against the Jets, I had to ask Kittle what Mason adds to the 49ers offense. Kittle's answer was fascinating:

“He’s very different. Like I told Christian, literally the only good thing that came out of him not playing is that our playbook shrinks just a little bit, which I'm always a fan of, the shrinking playbook now. Kyle Shanaan can make all these awesome plays and the cool thing about Christian, is you can do all these things that no one else in the world can do, but we really just ran the most simple outside zone all day. Whether it was a weak side run at Trent Williams, Colton McKivitz or you had two tight ends in there and just run an outside zone, it worked really well and I was happy for that. What JP also does is he's just such a downhill runner and he's a dense dude, sturdy, that'd be a good word for it. He’s a dense, sturdy guy and he just runs downhill very physically. You guys saw that in the first preseason game versus Tennessee. He had about 70 yards on six carries. Hopefully he can just keep doing that and there'll be a very good substitute for Christian so we don't have to play Christian for a hundred snaps a game.”

MY TAKE: I love how Kittle took a subtle jab at Shanahan for overusing McCaffrey. We all understand that McCaffrey is excellent, but Shanahan's fixation with him leads to the offense becoming overcomplicated and McCaffrey getting worn down. Mason's emergence helps everyone.