San Francisco 49ers tight end George Kittle was the best player on the field on Sunday. In fact, Peter Schrager of NFL Network's Good Morning Football said on Monday that he believes Kittle was the best player on any NFL field over the weekend.
In his six games since returning from injured reserve, Kittle has 38 catches for 530 receiving yards and six receiving touchdowns. His yardage total ranks No. 1 among tight ends during that span, and his touchdown total is the most of any NFL player since Week 9.
"The best player on the field—on any field—yesterday was George Kittle," Schrager said on-air. "It was unbelievable watching this guy take this team on his back and win. The Kittle experience, it's now two weeks in a row. He had [181 receiving] yards last week, did it again this week (151 yards). He's finally healthy, and it's like, 'You know what? I'm just going to put this team on my back, and let's just go win, and let's go get to the playoffs.'"
On Sunday against the Cincinnati Bengals, Kittle became the first tight end in NFL history to register 150-or-more receiving yards and a touchdown in back-to-back games. He is the first member of the 49ers to do so since wide receiver Terrell Owens in 2002.
"Kittle's unstoppable," Schrager continued. "The numbers tell one story of 13 catches, 151 yards. ... It's like the Bengals had six people on him at all times, and Kittle just found a way. It's funny because if it wasn't Kittle who I was going to pick as my game ball, it was going to be Nick Bosa, who had two sacks and was all over the field.
"Kittle, and Bosa, and this tag team—the NFC is really good up top, and it's really top-heavy right now, but there is a team down there at 7-6 right now, the 49ers, and I don't think anybody wants to face [them]."
"There was no player better on any NFL field than George Kittle (@GKittle46) yesterday. He gets my game ball. And if it wasn't him, it was Nick Bosa (@nbsmallerbear )." -- @Pschrags on the @49ers All-World TE and DE Week 14 performances in their win over the Bengals pic.twitter.com/y60aN2Bqsc
— Good Morning Football (@gmfb) December 13, 2021
After the game, the Bengals head coach, Zac Taylor, expressed his frustration trying to stop or even slow down Kittle.
"We tried everything," Taylor said. "He's one of the best tight ends out there. We've known that for a long time. He had similar production last week—he had almost 200 yards receiving—so it's not like he surprises people.
"You saw the catch he made that almost won them the game in regulation and put them in field goal range. When a guy is that explosive and has that big of hands with that kind of catch radius, he makes a lot of plays.
"And I promise we tried like hell to take him away, and he just finds a way to make those plays."