What to Expect from 49ers FB Kyle Juszczyk in 2024

Should we expect Juszczyk to have a bounce-back season, or will his production continue to decline?

Grant Cohn | Jul 2, 2024

Feb 11, 2024; Paradise, Nevada, USA; San Francisco 49ers fullback Kyle Juszczyk (44) celebrates a play against the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LVIII at Allegiant Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports / Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

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San Francisco 49ers

Kyle Juszczyk has gone to eight straight Pro Bowls and is coming off his first ever All Pro season, and yet 2023 was the worst season of his career since he was a rookie.

In 17 regular season games, Juszczyk caught 14 passes for 119 yards and 2 touchdowns. And as a runner, he rushed 5 times for just 6 yards and zero touchdowns. He also played just 46 percent of the 49ers offensive snaps.

Should we expect Juszczyk to have a bounce-back season, or will his production continue to decline?

It's worth mentioning that the 49ers this offseason forced Juszczyk to take a pay cut, gave Jauan Jennings a contract extension and drafted wide receiver Ricky Pearsall in Round 1. So Juszczyk's playing time is in jeopardy and his tenure with the team could come to an end after this season.

At this point, Jennings is a better player than Juszczyk and deserves to play more than the fullback who goes in motion and rarely touches the ball. Sure, Juszczyk is a good blocker, but so is Jennings, and he's a much, much better receiver than Juszczyk.

ESPN's Mike Clay projects Juszczyk to have 16 catches, 118 yards and 1 touchdown this upcoming season, which would is roughly what he produced last season. Clay didn't exactly go out on a limb with his prediction.

I'm guessing Juszcyzk will catch fewer than 10 passes this season. He simply isn't good enough to warrant more targets. The 49ers have to get the ball to Brandon Aiyuk, Deebo Samuel, George Kittle, Christian McCaffrey, Jennings and Pearsall, and there aren't enough targets to go around.

And yet, somehow Juszczyk will go to the Pro Bowl for the ninth year in a row. Watch.

Published Jul 2, 2024

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.