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Pro Football Focus Ranks 49ers TE George Kittle Ahead of Travis Kelce

Kittle is a great player, but no one would take him over Kelce. Not even the 49ers.

Grant Cohn

George Kittle and Travis Kelce greet the crowd during the “Tight Ends & Friends” concert at Brooklyn Bowl Tuesday, June 18, 2024 in Nashville, Tenn.
George Kittle and Travis Kelce greet the crowd during the “Tight Ends & Friends” concert at Brooklyn Bowl Tuesday, June 18, 2024 in Nashville, Tenn. / Alan Poizner / For The Tennessean / USA
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A few years ago, George Kittle was the consensus best tight end in the NFL.

Then Patrick Mahomes came along and he and Kelce won three Super Bowls and now Kelce is considered the best tight end in the NFL by most analysts.

Not Pro Football Focus, though. They recently ranked the top 32 tight ends in the NFL and Kittle finished no. 1.

"Let's start this list with controversy. Kittle was the NFL's highest-graded tight end in 2023 at 87.7 overall, while Kelce finished second at 82.6. Kittle's run-blocking grade also dwarfed Kelce’s, 81.1 to 46.9. Their overall grades over the past three years are identical at 91.6. Kelce gets the nod in receiving grade (92.2 vs. 91.4), but Kittle’s grade in the run game is far superior (80.8 vs. 56.0). In the end, there is little doubt who the best two tight ends have been over the past three to five years. Kelce’s receiving ability is invaluable to Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs, while Kittle’s overall game is a perfect fit for Kyle Shannahan’s diversified run game and play-action pass attack."

- PFF Analyst John Kosko

I find this analysis highly amusing.

Sure, Kittle is a much better blocker than Kelce, and that's important. But Kelce also is a much better receiver than Kittle. Not marginally better. Significantly better. Kelce caught 32 passes in the playoffs while Kittle caught just 8. And it's true that Kittle has to share targets with lots of elite weapons, Kelce has to fight through double coverage much more often than Kittle does, and Kelce still produces.

Kelce is one of the most prolific playoff receivers of all time regardless of position. Only Jerry Rice has more receiving yards and receiving touchdowns in the playoffs than Kelce, who has 165 catches, 1,910 yards and 19 touchdowns in the postseason. As opposed to Kittle, who has 33 catches, 459 yards and 2 touchdowns in the playoffs.

Kittle is a great player, but no one would take him over Kelce. Not even the 49ers.

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Grant Cohn

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.

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