Why George Kittle is excited about what Christian McCaffrey offers 49ers in 2023

Christian McCaffrey amassed 1,210 total yards and 10 total touchdowns in 11 games with the San Francisco 49ers this past season. Imagine with the star running back could have done in an entire season within Kyle Shanahan’s offense. Imagine what the 49ers could have done.

George Kittle is imagining the possibilities.

McCaffrey arrived from the Carolina Panthers via a mid-season trade and had to go through a crash course to get up to speed. The running back was so eager to help his new team that he suited up against the Kansas City Chiefs about 48 hours after arriving in Santa Clara and getting his hands on a playbook.

Kittle joined The Pat McAfee Show and was asked about McCaffrey and what the running back’s presence means for the All-Pro tight end and his teammates in year two, with a full offseason to study the system.

“If you’re going to double team me and then you have the single cover Deebo [Samuel], Brandon [Aiyuk], Christian McCaffrey, Jauan Jennings, hey, good luck, man. Good luck,” an excited Kittle shared.

That’s a lot of offensive firepower for whichever quarterback starts Week 1. And Kittle isn’t concerned with racking up individual statistics so long as the 49ers are racking up wins.

“Hey, if I have one catch a game, I know my fantasy football coaches will be really mad at me for that. It is what it is,” Kittle said. “As long as we’re winning games, we’re feeding the right guys the ball, I’m never going to get mad at Christian McCaffrey if he has 20 carries and 10 catches for 300 total yards. I’ll never be upset about that because he’s such a talented football player.”

McCaffrey finished the 2022 season with an impressive 1,880 total yards and 13 total touchdowns in his 17 games between the 49ers and the Panthers. He is just one of many 49ers playmakers itching to get back on the football field and fight for a championship after coming up just short of a return to the Super Bowl last season.

Added Kittle: “So it’s really fun to be on a team that does have a problem of too many mouths to feed because Coach Shanahan does such a great job of scheming everybody into getting certain plays and stuff. And it’s just really fun to be a part of an offense like that, that has so much talent on it.”

The 49ers begin their offseason program on April 17.