George Kittle to Sign Extension with 49ers on Friday

A well-placed source who has been correct in the past just texted me this.

Grant Cohn | Aug 12, 2020

Take this for what it’s worth.

A well-placed source who has been correct in the past just texted me this: The 49ers will announce George Kittle’s contract extension this Friday.

According to the source, it will be a six-year extension worth $94.8 million -- or $15.8 million per season. Of that money, the 49ers guaranteed 50 percent of it, or $47.4 million. Kittle also will receive a $25 million signing bonus, and the 49ers will structure his deal in such a way that he will cost them only $10 million of their salary cap space in 2021.

Meaning Kittle technically would earn less money annually than Arik Armstead and Dee Ford, who earn $17 million and $17.1 million per season, respectively. But Kittle would receive more guaranteed money than any player on the 49ers except for Jimmy Garoppolo, who received $48.7 million fully guaranteed from the 49ers in 2017.

This seems like a fair deal for both the 49ers and Kittle. The 49ers don’t have to pay Kittle $17 million per season, which is wide-receiver money. They get a discount because he’s a tight end. But Kittle gets lots of guaranteed money and security because he has earned it. He’s one of the best players in the league, he’s a team captain and the face of the franchise.

During three seasons in the NFL, Kittle has caught 216 passes, gained 2,977 yards and scored 12 touchdowns. His peers recently voted him the seventh-best player in the league, according to the NFL Network. And now, if my source is correct, it appears Kittle will be on the 49ers through 2026.

Published Aug 12, 2020

GRANT COHN

Grant Cohn has covered the San Francisco 49ers daily since 2011. He spent the first nine years of his career with the Santa Rosa Press Democrat where he wrote the Inside the 49ers blog and covered famous coaches and athletes such as Jim Harbaugh, Colin Kaepernick and Patrick Willis. In 2012, Inside the 49ers won Sports Blog of the Year from the Peninsula Press Club. In 2020, Cohn joined FanNation and began writing All49ers. In addition, he created a YouTube channel which has become the go-to place on YouTube to consume 49ers content. Cohn's channel typically generates roughly 3.5 million viewers per month, while the 49ers' official YouTube channel generates roughly 1.5 million viewers per month. Cohn live streams almost every day and posts videos hourly during the football season. Cohn is committed to asking the questions that 49ers fans want answered, and providing the most honest and interactive coverage in the country. His loyalty is to the reader and the viewer, not the team or any player or coach. Cohn is a new-age multimedia journalist with an old-school mentality, because his father is Lowell Cohn, the legendary sports columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1979 to 1993. The two have a live podcast every Tuesday. Grant Cohn grew up in Oakland and studied English Literature at UCLA from 2006 to 2010. He currently lives in Oakland with his wife.