Yardbarker NFL writers Michael Tunison and Chris Mueller address some of the hottest issues in the league. This week’s topic: breakout stars.
Tunison: The retirement of Rob Gronkowski decimated the supply of disarmingly goofy but talented tight ends in the NFL, seemingly leaving just Kansas City’s Travis Kelce to carry the mantle. Ah, but to quote the legendary philosopher Yoda, there is another.
George Kittle was already demonstrating that he was a player to watch in 2018 on a derailed 49ers team that had to get starts out of QB Nick Mullens. He posted close to 1,400 receiving yards, which went largely unnoticed because it happened to be on a 4-12 team written off early in the season when its franchise quarterback went down with a knee injury. After seven games, Kittle is on pace for a slight dip in his numbers (40 catches for 462 yards), yet he’s still the top receiving threat on an undefeated team that has positioned itself as the NFC favorite.
Kittle may not be quite as much of a cartoon jock as Gronk, but he has his moments. Like Gronk, he’s big into pro wrestling, does a respectable imitation of The Rock, and got a rather large forearm tattoo of The Joker the day before he got married in the off-season, perhaps just to counter the narrative that the character is just for incels.
