San Francisco 49ers tight end George Kittle hauled in seven passes for 210 yards during the first half against the Denver Broncos last weekend. A performance like that is enough to shine a spotlight on a player.
Kittle, who is now the franchise record holder for single-season receiving yards by a tight end, his teammates, and his head coach have been bombarded with questions this week about the performance.
Friday morning was no different. Kyle Shanahan joined KNBR and discussed his star player at length.
While others have been asked about the impressive performance, Shanahan has dealt with questions on why the performance wasn't impressive enough — like five yards short of being more impressive. That's how many more yards Kittle needed to break Shannon Sharpe's single-game record for most receiving yards by a tight end.
While Kittle racked up 210 yards in the first half, he was held without a catch in the second. One catch for a player averaging 16 yards per reception this season likely would have put Kittle over the top.
"Yeah, I felt real bad about that," Shanahan said on the "Murph & Mac" show. "I definitely felt better about the win. I apologized to him."
Shanahan didn't want to take any chances with the 49ers holding onto a six-point lead at the end. The 49ers had plays called for Kittle in the second half, but the coverage adjustments by Denver didn't make things as easy as they were in the first half.
"The whole time we were kneeling it down, I'm sitting there," Shanahan continued, "I'm the only coach with my headset on at the time because I'm still trying to contemplate, 'OK, can we throw him a screen or something right now just to try to get him five more yards?'
"But the game was still too on the line. It was one score. Once I'm talking about it and no one's answering, I'm getting crickets, I realize I'm talking to myself. So, I take the headset off, and I start to hug everybody. Then we mess up kneeling the clock, which was a little bit of a quick panic."
What has really impressed Shanahan about Kittle this season is what he has been able to do after the catch. Kittle leads all NFL tight ends in yards after the catch, and it's not even close. His 705 yards after the catch are 178 more than the tight end who ranks No. 2 — Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs. And Kelce has played one more game than Kittle.
The national media has taken notice and Kittle is starting to get the recognition he deserves. Shanahan isn't worried about the newfound fame going to his head, though.
"Kittle doesn't play football to be famous," Shanahan explained. "He plays football because he loves it. And obviously, you make a good living doing it. But you can tell how he plays, that guy enjoys football. That's why he works the way he does. It's not to earn a contract or to be famous. It's because he wants to be great at something he is passionate about, and you can see that in how he plays, how he is when the ball is in his hands.
"That's something I hope all our players can see because that passion that you play with can change your mentality and change your game."
You can listen to the entire conversation with Shanahan below.