49ers’ Kyle Shanahan identifies this play as George Kittle’s best

George Kittle spent up to an hour on most off-season days working on balance beams in his custom gym. Last weekend, the San Francisco 49ers tight end showed off his newfound ability to defy gravity during a highlight-worthy play against the Seattle Seahawks. Kittle took a short pass from his quarterback, Jimmy Garoppolo, and somehow managed to avoid defenders (hat tip to wide receiver Jauan Jennings for a nice downfield block to help create a lane) and scamper into the end zone for a 48-yard score.

As impressive as that play was, it isn't the first one that comes to mind for head coach Kyle Shanahan when it comes to Kittle's best-ever play as a receiver.

"I think he's made some better ones," Shanahan told NBC Sports Bay Area this week. "That was a real good one, alright? But the blocking is what made it go all the way. The tight-rope was awesome.

"The catch he made to break the [most single-season receiving yards by a tight end] record in [2018] at the Rams when he needed like 50 yards, and we just threw him a five-yard pass, and he was getting 50 yards no matter what, that one was pretty impressive to me. He's had a bunch."

Kittle finished the 2018 season with a then-tight end record of 1,377 receiving yards. The record stood for just two years before Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce broke it in 2020 with 1,416 receiving yards.

While Sunday's touchdown run against the Seahawks may not be listed first in Shanahan's top Kittle moments, the coach was still impressed.

"But that play, we had run that run a number of times in the game, and they were just overplaying it a lot," Shanahan continued. "So we put in a keeper off of it, and George blew by everybody. Their safety tried to grab him and slow him down, but George is explosive enough to run right through that. So he was going to get a big play.

"But then that block that Jauan made was unbelievable. And then that little hit by—not getting a penalty, but getting in [Seahawks safety Quandre] Diggs' way—that [Brandon] Aiyuk did, that allowed him to turn the corner. Then it was just unbelievable staying inbounds."

Of course, Shanahan was not quick to celebrate Kittle's highlight-worthy run.

"I get used to celebrating and then seeing that it comes back," Shanahan explained. "It's a little deflating, so I waited for a while. Then by the time George hit me on the sidelines, I knew we were good. But he's way too physical of a celebrator too. We try to stay away from him as coaches because he comes at us pretty hard."