GREEN BAY – Speaking with the San Francisco media this week about his hamstring injury, 49ers tight end George Kittle vowed to be out there Sunday at Lambeau Field after missing last week's game.
"Can't pass up playing the Packers," Kittle said.
Can't blame him for the sentiment, judging by his success against Green Bay.
In the Matt LaFleur era, it's difficult to find a Packers-49ers game in which Kittle played and wasn't a significant factor. The only one is the 2019 NFC title game, when he caught just one pass for 19 yards as running back Raheem Mostert stole the show and San Francisco threw just eight passes in a blowout win.
Otherwise, Kittle has been a beast against Green Bay. In the 2019 regular-season meeting, he had six catches for 129 yards, including a 61-yard TD. In 2021, he had seven catches for 92 yards in the October matchup and four catches for 63 yards in January. Then last year, he caught four passes for 81 yards and a TD from 32 yards out in another divisional round playoff.
That's 21 receptions for 365 yards and two long TDs in four games. From a tight end.
"He just brings that juice to that team – the effort, the enthusiasm, the intensity," said new Packers defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley, who was on San Francisco's staff when the 49ers drafted Kittle out of Iowa in 2017. "He plays the game the right way and he raises up their offense."
Of course, if keeping the 49ers in check were as simple as focusing on Kittle, the Packers would do it. But there's also multi-faceted weapons like Christian McCaffrey and Deebo Samuel to contend with, along with Jauan Jennings, all of whom will be available to 49ers backup QB Brandon Allen with starter Brock Purdy out.
McCaffrey was the 49ers' offensive MVP of last January's playoff game (128 yards from scrimmage, two TDs) as Samuel got hurt, and now Jennings is the team's leading receiver this season with 588 yards.
But who's right behind him? Kittle, with 560 yards, along with a team-best seven TDs and 43 receptions, one more than Jennings.
"He's one of the best at the position," said LaFleur, who got to know Kittle a bit when the Packers' coaching staff worked the Pro Bowl a couple years back. "He just embodies how they want to play, the style of play. He's relentless, and he's going to fight for every inch, every blade of grass out on the field. He's an all-time great."
What garners such respect aren't Kittle's statistics, either, as impressive as they are. His approach to the game is always on display with his blocking, both in the run game and pass protection.
Packers tight end Tucker Kraft has spent time already in his young career with Kittle in the offseason at "Tight End U," the annual workout gathering founded by Kittle, Travis Kelce and Greg Olsen that brings tight ends together to hone their craft and discuss the finer points of their games.
The opportunity has been invaluable for Kraft as the second-year pro looks to put himself on the same trajectory as the best in the game, and Kittle is admired as the epitome of the all-around player at the position.
"Gronk's talking about YAC, Trav's talking about routes, and George was talking about run blocking and pass pro," said Kraft, who also happens to share an agent with Kittle. "He's a guy that I look up to, for sure.
"You know people like George more through how they play. Someone who plays with character rather than someone who is a character. George plays who he is on the field at all times."
So how do the Packers go about limiting his impact? It starts with anyone lined up across from him, or assigned to him, to match his intensity on every single play. That's easier said than done, though, because Kittle's well never runs dry.
"George is one of those guys I think has that one-play mindset, something that I try to emulate in my game – one snap at a time, he's going balls to the walls," Kraft said. "That's something you want from your tight end.
"I'm not comparing myself to George, but flip on my film and I say to myself: 'One play at a time, one moment (or) opportunity at a time, full go, all the time.'"
Time will tell whether the Packers have another Kittle in the making with Kraft, who also scored a TD in last January's playoff meeting and made no secret of his desire to take his blocking, as well as his entire game, to another level in his second season.
It's known that Kraft has done so. He's a key cog in the running game with a team-leading five TDs and robust 13.4 yards per catch (slightly ahead of Kittle's 13.0, actually). What's unknown is Kraft's ceiling, and the ceiling is Kittle.
It's not Kraft's job to outplay Kittle in Sunday's showdown, but it is the Green Bay defense's job to give him a chance. Whether it can almost certainly will factor into the outcome.
