San Francisco 49ers tight end George Kittle believes his chemistry with Trey Lance has improved over the offseason while Brock Purdy nears a return to full fitness.
The 49ers have made it clear that Purdy is set to be franchise’s starting quarterback once he recovers from ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) surgery to address the injury he suffered against the Philadelphia Eagles in the NFC Championship Game. Purdy impressed as a rookie starter in 2022 but his offseason has been spent rehabilitating his injury.
Purdy’s injury and recovery provided an opportunity for Lance - the third overall pick in the 2021 NFL Draft - to get first-team reps during offseason training along with Sam Darnold. Last week, Kittle attended the ‘Tight End University’ event in Nashville alongside the two quarterbacks, and he heaped praise on how Lance has developed.
“Trey has been great,” Kittle said, according to David Bonilla of 49erswebzone.com. “I think he took steps forward in the OTAs. It’s really fun when you start connecting on plays that you might have struggled [with] in the past, and that’s something that we did at OTAs a couple of times, so that was fun. Got to get a lot of extra work in with them.”
Kittle has been able to tune up his chemistry with Lance on the field and their conversations off of it. The 29-year-old was somewhat rejuvenated by Purdy last year, and Kittle is now targeting a relationship with Lance similar to Kansas City Chiefs duo Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce, leading to two Super Bowl titles.
“I just like talking ball with [Lance], too, because one of the things that Kelce was saying about him and Patrick is just they communicate about certain things, and there’s talk through everything,” Kittle continued. “So as long as they’re on the same page, it doesn’t really matter what the defence does.
“You can find that spot, or he’s going to know what Travis is going to do on any given play because they’ve repped so many times, they’ve talked about it so many times. So just having that opportunity to sit down and talk with Trey, watch film with him, and having this event, too, because Trey sat next to me through our meetings.”
Kittle added: “For him to be able to watch guys talk about routes and stuff like that, to see how other tight ends are talking about it, he learns stuff from that, too. So it’s just a fun opportunity for him.”
While Lance could surpass Purdy on the depth chart if he impresses in OTAs, such a move is unlikely due to the sophomore’s rookie success in 2022. NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero revealed Purdy will spend the next two weeks in Jacksonville throwing with private quarterback coach Will Hewlett and performance coach Tom Gormely.
Hewlett worked with Purdy before the 2022 NFL Draft, where he became ‘Mr Irrelevant’ as the final pick, and the quarterback will lean on the coach to help his throwing mechanics return to where they were before the elbow injury. Gormely has worked with several NFL quarterbacks and Major League Baseball pitchers, who are more likely to suffer the UCL injury.
Ironically, Purdy burst onto the scene for the 49ers last season as he took advantage of several injuries to climb up the depth chart. Lance was the starter for San Francisco at the start of the season, but he suffered an ankle injury that prematurely ended his campaign in Week 2.
Now-Las Vegas Raiders quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo returned to the fold as his replacement only to also go down with a season-ending injury in Week 13, which opened the door for Purdy. The 23-year-old went on a 6-0 winning run to close out the regular season before leading the 49ers to the brink of the Super Bowl.
