2021 George Kittle Fantasy Football Player Profile

It’s that time of year once again! Football Absurdity will bring you a breakdown of every notable fantasy football-relevant player throughout June, July, and August. We’ve run through 20 quarterbacks, 40 running backs, and 50 wide receivers! Let’s turn our attention to the position some hate so much they want to ditch it entirely. That’s right, it’s time for the tight end fantasy football previews! Today, we take a look at a man I affectionately call “the giant football oaf.” Can 2021 George Kittle bounce back after an injury-riddled 2020 campaign?

George Kittle ADP & AAV:

Average Draft Position (HPPR): TE2, Pick 25
Average Auction Value: $31.1 (TE2)

George Kittle Statistics:

2021 George Kittle Fantasy Football Overview:

Everything went bad in every conceivable way for the 2020 49ers. That includes Jimmy Garoppolo throwing a medicine ball in week one that caused an injury to George Kittle. Kittle gritted out that game (he shouldn’t have), played five more games, then hit the IR, then bounced back from the IR, to play two more games. If you toss out the game where Kittle couldn’t play in the second half, then Kittle paced out to get within spitting distance of his then-record 1,377 receiving yards in 2018. In his seven healthy games, Kittle paced out to 1,349 yards and 5 touchdowns, on 133 targets (101 receptions).

Forget your Deebos Samuel, and your Brandons Aiyuk, this is George Kittle’s passing game. The three of them played four games together last year, and Kittle averaged 8 catches for 98 yards on 10 targets in those games (and paced out to 8 touchdowns). There’s nothing to indicate that George Kittle can and would take a step back except fantasy football Twitter’s restless persistence to make Brandon Aiyuk A Thing.

George Kittle absolutely dominates targets for the 49ers, and it doesn’t matter who is under center. If you think anything differently, you are overthinking things and big braining yourself.

2021 George Kittle Draft Strategy:

George Kittle Auction Value: $14
Draft Ranking: Find out for your league settings in a Beersheet!

Tight End Tier Two should just be called the Kittle and Waller Tier, and both guys should be off the board before the 3.01 pick in your snake drafts. Neither really has a chance to challenge Travis Kelce for the top spot, and it would be out-thinking things to take Mark Andrews, T.J. Hockenson, or Kyle Pitts above them. So, there they sit. If you want them, get them in the second round.

My preference is Darren Waller over George Kittle. Shocking, I know, given the overview. But, given that we are talking about two slam dunk second-round picks, I feel like it’s my duty to make sure that all nits are picked and nary a hair remains unsplit.

George Kittle is facing a team with a quarterback controversy. With a QB controversy comes turmoil (maybe good, maybe bad) and a reshifting midway through the season. This type of disruption can break fantasy football production for a week or two. The Las Vegas Raiders, on the flip side, face no such pending disruption. That is unless Marcus Mariota has anything to say about it (he doesn’t). So, because the offensive system is likely to stay steady all year long, I am going to lean Waller over Kittle for the floor.

But the ceiling is all Kittle; TE1 is well within his range of outcomes with Trey Lance under center.

Best Case Scenario:

The 49ers turn to Trey Lance early, and he lifts the entire offense to new heights. He passes Travis Kelce as the no-doubt TE1 in all formats.

Worst Case Scenario:

Jimmy Garoppolo continues the business-as-usual 49ers, and Kittle ends up TE3.

Check out all our 2021 player profiles, here.

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[Statistics are sourced from pro-football-reference.com, airyards.com, and ftnfantasy.com]

[Header Image Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/45/George_Kittle_2_%28cropped%29.jpg, cropped under CC BY SA 2.0]