Bill Belichick didn’t say much on Monday. Not on his conference call with the New England media or his weekly radio appearance on WEEI. That’s not uncommon for him or a lot of coaches following a loss and New the Patriots suffered a rough one on Monday.
He did make an exception when asked about George Kittle. Belichick gushed praise about the 49ers tight end.
“Kittle is a great player,” Belichick told a contingent of 49ers “He does everything well. I’d put him right at the top of the league there, period. His ability to run, catch, get open, after the catch, block -- he does everything at a high level. He’s as good as anybody that I’ve coached or as good as anybody that we’ve played against. He’s got a great skillset and the 49ers put him in positions that really stress the defense and make it hard, but then they also use him somewhat as a decoy to open things up for other guys, too.”
That’s high praise from Belichick, who not only coached Rob Gronkowski, but still can’t get talk about former Giants tight end Mark Bavarro without getting nostalgic. He’s not prone to hyperbole.
“I don’t think there’s a tight end in the league, and we’ve seen a lot of good ones and have had a lot of good ones, but I don’t think there’s anybody in the league that does everything overall as well as he does," Belichick said. "He really just doesn’t have any weak points at all. Just outstanding at every phase of the game.”
Kittle haunts the memories of personnel directors who all let the 27-year-old Iowa grad last until the fifth round of the 2017 NFL draft after eight other tight ends were already selected. The Hawkeyes didn’t throw him the ball. The 49ers sure do making him a nightmare for defensive coordinators.
Kittle has had more than 80 catches and over 1,000 yards each of the last two seasons. Despite missing a game he leads the 49ers in catches (30) and receiving yards (380).
The Patriots have gotten a steady diet of elite pass-catching tight ends this season having already faced Darren Waller and Travis Kelce. According to Adrian Phillips, Kelce has a superior trait.
“He blocks way better than those guys. He’s not afraid to block. I mean, those guys aren’t either. But you know, you just call a spade a spade. He’s a dog when it comes to blocking,” Phillips said. “Kelce is probably the best route runner in the league at tight end. Waller is probably one of the fastest. So you kind of get a combination of both of those guys, you get Kittle who’s really balanced overall. He can run with the rock, his routes are good, he can block good. Just being able to do against those two guys before really helped. It’s nothing we haven’t seen. We know what the challenge is and you’ve just got to go get it done.”
John Simon was more concise.
“I think he’s a playmaker for 'em," Simon said. As I said, they’ve got a lot of weapons, but he’s a big one for 'em, and a big challenge for us to stop this week.”
Patriots tight end Ryan Izzo admitted to old film of Rob Gronkowski, he watches Kittle video for inspiration.
“Yeah, you always gotta learn from the greats in the league right now. I think Kittle just overall from his run game to his pass game to his protection,” Izzo said. “Just as a player he’s obviously one of the best players in the league so I’ve watched a lot of tape on him. We got a lot of cut-ups on him, so it’s just trying to take little things that he does in games and just learn from that.”
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