Major Contract Stalemate Between The San Francisco 49ers And Star Tight End George Kittle?

It was noted just ahead of the Super Bowl this past February that All-Pro tight end George Kittle could receive a record-breaking contract from the San Francisco 49ers.

Said extension would far surpass the four-year, $42 million deal new Cleveland Browns tight end Austin Hooper is currently playing under. Given Kittle’s record-setting performance over the first three seasons of his career, this made perfect sense.

Outside of the receiving numbers, the former fifth-round pick remains the single-best run-blocking tight end in the NFL. It’s not necessarily that close.

Given his importance in all aspects of what San Francisco does on offense under head coach Kyle Shanahan, it stood to reason that Kittle would have already received a groundbreaking extension.

Not so fast. According to NFL Media’s Mike Silver, things are not going swimmingly as it relates to a new contract. The respected insider notes that the 49ers and Kittle’s representatives have not talked since preliminary conversations early in the offseason.

Meanwhile, Silver noted that he has talked to Kittle’s agent Jack, Bechta, over at JB Sports in recent months. The agent has made it clear he was hired to negotiate Kittle’s contract. Said negotiations, in his mind, don’t even take into account the tight end market.

This makes a whole lot of sense. As Silver noted in his report, San Francisco’s success in running its zone-blocking scheme depends heavily on Kittle’s blocking ability on the outside. The team averages more than two years per rush on the outside when Kittle is in the game compared to him being on the sidelined. His advanced receiving stats are also something else.

There’s certainly a lot of dynamics that go into play here. As noted above, Hooper is the NFL’s highest-paid tight end on a per-year basis at $10.5 million. Either way we spin it, Kittle would shatter that mark.

At issue here is Kittle’s reps demanding to look beyond the tight end market. Maybe his reps see its client as more of a wide receiver. In that case, a contract valued at the five highest-paid wide receivers in the NFL could work. This would pay Kittle north of $19 million per season. Compared to Hooper’s contract, that’s an entirely new commitment from San Francisco.

49ers general manager John Lynch could turn around and offer Kittle top-five left tackle money given his ability as a blocker. This would represent finding a happy medium at just under $17 million annually.

These are simply hypotheticals. What I do know is that San Francisco salary cap guru and vice president Paraag Marathe has a certain way he goes about negotiating deals. It has helped the 49ers in a big way from a cap perspective. It has also soured some big-name players from signing with San Francisco in free agency. Again, it’s about a happy medium.

As the defending NFC champs and with their Super Bowl window wide open, the 49ers are going to have to go against the grain here. Kittle is a generational talent. He deserves a generational type of contract.

Playing loose with negotiations in an attempt to save a few million per season won’t set San Francisco up for success moving forward. Kittle is too important to the team for this to drag on beyond the offseason.

Unfortunately, Silver’s report seems to suggest that the two sides are not even close to coming to terms on a new deal.

And as we saw with the shocking DeForest Buckner trade back in March, everything is on the table in San Francisco if the finances dictate a move no one was expecting in the first place.