The San Francisco 49ers know they have a gem in tight end George Kittle. There's no debate about that.
But Kittle was just named by NFL.com's Eric Edholm as the No. 3 tight end draft value of this millennium, behind only Travis Kelce and Rob Gronkowski.
"The 2017 draft class featured some respectable receiving talent at tight end, including the likes of Evan Engram, David Njoku and Jonnu Smith," writes Edholm. "But by far the best in the group has been Kittle, who has more catches, yards and touchdowns than all of them -- and he’s considered a more than capable blocker, too. The energetic Kittle caught only 48 passes in 40 college games at run-heavy Iowa, but he nearly matched that total (43) as a rookie with the 49ers. In seven seasons since then, he’s averaged more than 70 catches per season, topping the 1,000-yard mark four times and earning six Pro Bowl nods.
"Injuries have slowed Kittle at times, and his postseason production isn’t quite as strong, but his credentials are above reproach, and he remains close to his peak entering his age-32 season, which was reflected in the top-of-the-market contract extension the 49ers signed Kittle to this spring."
Across 113 regular season games in eight seasons, Kittle has 538 catches with 7,380 yards and 45 touchdowns. He's added six Pro Bowl nods and been named First-Team All-Pro twice and Second-Team All-Pro three times.
Last season, the former Iowa Hawkeye finished just outside the top 10 in Offensive Player of the Year voting.
No. 3 All-Millennium seems pretty good for a fifth-round draft pick.