Kyle Shanahan’s run in San Francisco just hit another marker, and George Kittle has been there for nearly every step of it.
Shanahan became the 49ers’ longest-tenured head coach in Week 4 against the Denver Broncos, passing Bill Walsh and adding another line to a decade that has already included two Super Bowl trips, two NFC Championship Game appearances and a divisional-round run last season. It’s a long list of close calls and near misses, but it also says plenty about how steady the 49ers have been under his watch.
Kittle is one of only two players who have been with the team as long as Shanahan, along with fullback Kyle Juszczyk, who joined in free agency. That kind of overlap has made Kittle a direct witness to the whole arc - the big-stage heartbreaks, the 6-11 2024 season that made the future of the core look uncertain, and the way Shanahan has kept shaping the franchise through it all.
Kittle made it clear he appreciates both the person and the coach.
"One, I'm incredibly happy for him. I'm happy for myself that I was drafted to an organization like this with him at the helm," Kittle shared with reporters.
"The way that he conducts himself on a daily basis, the way that he runs team meetings, the way that he holds everybody to the same standard, everything he's done has been pretty consistent.
"He's grown obviously as a coach and he's done some things differently, but ever since day one, he's been really the same guy and I've really appreciated that. Being able to be here for each one. I haven't played in every single game that he's coached, but to be here for all of them, it means a lot.
"It's an honor to go to battle with him every single Sunday. When you have a head coach that one, holds everybody to the same standard but also two, you know how hard he prepares every single week and the hours that he puts in to try to put the best game plan together for us.
"I just feel lucky every single day that he's my head coach."
The connection between Shanahan and Kittle has become one of the defining pairings of the 49ers era. Their timelines have moved together, and Shanahan’s presence helped create the setting for Kittle to become the franchise’s all-time leader in touchdowns by a tight end, a mark he reached against the Broncos.
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