The San Francisco 49ers have atypically taken care of a lot of contract business already this offseason. The run of recent new deals started with making George Kittle the highest-paid tight end by annual average value with a four-year, $76.4 million deal.
Kittle is entering his age-32 season, but he is arguably the best all-around tight end in the NFL and he's showing no real signs of slowing down. He wanted to be a "49er for life", and now that is in line to happen as he moves toward joining franchise lore as a 10-year player.
A tilt toward young talent on the defensive side of the ball this offseason creates a potentially very favorable fantasy football environment for the 49ers' offense, with positive outlooks for multiple players if things break right.
But alone at the top of the fantasy heap among 49ers' players, with fewer questions than anyone else, stands Kittle.
George Kittle's fantasy standing shows age is just a number
Based on their current consensus rankings here in mid-May, Yahoo! Fantasy Sports has outlined the highest ranking player at each position who is 30 years of age or older.
Kittle comes in as the TE3, behind only Brock Bowers and Trey McBride.
"Kittle was fantasy football's No. 1 tight end for standard, non-PPR scoring leagues last season. It wasn't Brock Bowers or Trey McBride, who had all the catches. It wasn't Sam LaPorta coming off a historic rookie season. It definitely wasn't Travis Kelce, whose decline phase sadly continued."
"Kittle has always been hiding in plain sight, a reliable dominator. He missed about half of the 2020 season, so let's throw that out. Otherwise, here's what he's done in his last six fantasy seasons in half-PPR: TE2, TE5, TE3, TE4, TE2, TE3."
"Kittle is more than capable of another top-5 TE finish heading into his age-32 season....
While the receiver room is in a bit of transition, there are no questions what Kittle will bring the 49ers and fantasy managers this season."
Kittle has not cracked 100 targets since 2019, his second NFL season. Assuming he's healthy he should comfortably do so this year, and he's the early top candidate to lead the 49ers in targets. Another finish as a top-five fantasy tight end in 2025 might prove to be an incomplete prediction.
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