San Francisco 49ers tight end George Kittle is in Atlanta, Georgia for the festivities leading up to Super Bowl 53. He jumped on the phone on Tuesday night to speak with Damon Bruce on 95.7 The Game.
Kittle's tight ends coach, Jon Embree, spoke with Matt Maiocco of NBC Sports Bay Area last week and shared the plan to unite Kittle with Tony Gonzalez in February or March. Gonzalez, a 14-time Pro Bowl selection and six-time first-team All-Pro over his 17-year NFL career, was among the best to ever play the position.
Embree spent three seasons as the tight ends coach with the Chiefs at the end of Gonzalez's time in Kansas City.
The hope is that Gonzalez, who will likely hear his name called on Saturday to be part of the Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of 2019, will be able to share some pointers with Kittle on how to sustain success in the NFL.
Bruce asked Kittle about the opportunity to meet with and learn from Gonzalez.
"[Embree] just told me after the season that's something he would be interested in me doing," Kittle said. "Tony watches all the games, and he has a lot of advice. Anything I can pick up from a Hall of Fame tight end — a guy who's going to be there — his film speaks for itself.
"Any piece of advice I can take from him, whether that's better ways to catch the ball, just tips on routes, just on reading safeties, whatever it can be, I'm going to absorb it like a sponge and hopefully take it into OTAs and next season."
A topic that will continually come up this offseason is the rehab of Jimmy Garoppolo. General manager John Lynch told Ian Rapoport last week that his quarterback is "doing great" and the 49ers remain hopeful to have him back for organized team activities.
Bruce asked Kittle about Garoppolo's progress and if the tight end had an opportunity to work with or spent much time with his quarterback since the end of the season. That is, aside from any trips to Las Vegas.
"We keep in touch every once in a while," Kittle said. "Obviously, he's doing his rehab stuff. Jimmy's a hard worker, so he's going to come back stronger than ever. I haven't had a chance to do anything with him, but I'm definitely looking forward to getting back to work in OTAs and having him sling the rock again."
No conversation with a 49ers player is complete without asking about Antonio Brown. And you can't avoid asking Kittle about the All-Pro receiver. After all, it was his tweet on New Year's Eve which kicked off the Brown-to-49ers speculation.
Brown most recently posted a mocked-up photo of himself with Hall of Fame receiver Jerry Rice via Instagram. It made headlines because it showed Brown, who is currently under contract with the Pittsburgh Steelers, in a 49ers uniform.
Kittle dodged the topic almost as impressively as he dodges defenders.
"I did see [the photo]," Kittle said. "I thought it was a great photo, but you've got to talk to Mr. Lynch and Coach Shanahan about that because I just show up and play football."
You can listen to the entire conversation with Kittle below.
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